Franciscanos e missão: atuação da Diocese de Bacabal e da Província Franciscana Nossa Senhora da Assunção em conflitos de terra no Médio Mearim (1970-1980)

Abstract

This research aims to approach about the performance of the Diocese of Bacabal and of the franciscans of the Franciscan Province Our Lady of the Assumption in land conflicts locked in the area of Medium Mearim among the in the 1970s and 1980s. The Catholic Church of this area became as spokesperson’s leaseholders threatened of expropriation. The leaseholders didn't have the documented lands was not a concern to demarcate and to regulate lands.They built their houses and they lived of the farming and of the coconut babassu. In the years of 1969 the Law of Lands no. 2.979/17-07-1969, known as Law of Terras Sarney, it began to motivate the privatization of public lands and the expansion of agricultural projects, what impelled the increase of land conflicts. The work of the Catholic Church consisted of looking for legal means to give attendance to the leaseholders, what resulted in threats arrivals of landowners and of the State. The Church intervened as mediator, motivated by the new debates that involved the Church of Latin America, as example, the Liberation Theology. They created and they implemented projects and entities as CPT, ACR, Cooperatives, AJULAV, etc. they also supported social movements like STR and MST, for us to win force before the fight for the land. Starting from the crossing of sources as: reports, pictures, cuttings of newspapers, narratives orals, etc. we search for to identify the areas of conflicts, resistances, strategies and the relationships that settled down before this problem. We also identified, conquests that were rendered starting from the resistance, of the clergymen's support and of the organization of the social movements.