On Friday, September 25, Globo news commentator Maria Cristina Fernandes mentioned that a group of Evangelical Christian supporters of Flavio Bolsonaro have been working to remove the status of the black Virgin Mary, Our Lady of Aparecida, as Brazil’s patron saint.
The comments tapped into the collective consciousness of Brazil’s Catholics and practitioners of Afro-Brazilian religions like Candomble and Umbanda, who worship Aparecida as the Yoruba goddess Oxum. Within hours, the issue had become the 3rd most commented political subject in Brazil this year. The Bolsonaro campaign responded, issuing a public statement that neither presidential candidate Flávio Bolsonaro, nor his family, have ever supported removing Our Lady of Aparecida as Patron Saint of Brazil.
His lawyers issued an emergency complaint to Supreme Court Justice André Mendonça. Mendonça was nominated to the court in 2021 by then-president Jair Bolsonaro. He is an evangelical pastor who is currently also serving as the president of the Superior Electoral Court. Mendonça ordered social media companies to block more than 2,000 posts.
Ordering social media companies to pull down content does not constitute censorship in Brazil. Neo-Nazi hate speech, inciting pedophilia, promoting violence and spreading lies about politicians during election season all constitute illegal online behavior in Brazil. Ordering social media companies to pull down those types of posts, therefore, does not constitute censorship here.
In this case, however, Mendonça ordered the companies to pull down hundreds of posts that made no reference to the Bolsonaro family, temporarily freezing the social media accounts of non-political Catholic groups for merely sharing images of the Virgin. Mendonça also censored factual information that was shared online about the scandal. This included a video of Flávio Bolsonaro announcing he would declare Jesus as the official Patron of Brazil as soon as he took office, and the revelation that the former congressman who introduced a bill to remove Our Lady of Aparecida as Patron Saint of Brazil went on to work as a special advisor to President Jair Bolsonaro.
Evangelicals make up a growing portion of Brazilian society, but only 26.9% of Brazilians declare themselves as evangelicals, versus 56.7% of Brazilians, who declare themselves Catholic.
In recent decades, there has been a campaign of aggression against the Catholic Church and Afro-Brazilian religions, by some evangelicals and prominent leaders, such as Assembly of God’s Silas Malafaia, This episode has reignited the debate around these issues.
The following article by Juliana Dal Piva, breaks down what is turning into a major political issue, just days from the presidential elections. - Ed
At the request of lawyers for presidential candidate Flávio Bolsonaro, Superior Electoral Court Justice André Mendonça ordered X, Facebook, Instagram, TikTok and YouTube to remove thousands of posts insinuating that he plans to strip Our Lady of Aparecida of her title as Brazil’s patron saint.
The order also applies to future posts. The platforms would not need another court order to remove such content.
Mendonça said the order does not apply to news reports, satire or humor. Even so, hundreds of posts that merely mentioned the issue without repeating the alleged plan were also removed.
ICL Notícias found that the list included posts from the official account of the National Shrine of Our Lady of Aparecida, “santuarionacional,” which is devoted to photographs of the national shrine, images of the saint, and prayers. That account does not contain political content.
Supreme Court Justice and Superior Electoral Court President André Mendonça preaches in a Presbitarian church in São Paulo. (image: social media)
Another removed post came from lawyer Lucas Mourão. It simply noted the fact that the author of the bill at the center of the controversy had served as a presidential advisor to Jair Bolsonaro.
The issue resurfaced in recent days, bringing renewed attention to Bill 2,623/2007. The bill proposed replacing Our Lady of Aparecida’s official designation as “Patron Saint of Brazil” with “Patron Saint of Brazilian Roman Catholics.” The Chamber of Deputies rejected and shelved the measure in August 2008.
The bill was introduced by former Federal Deputy Victório Galli Filho. After joining the Bolsonaro coalition, Galli was appointed as special adviser to the presidency by Jair Bolsonaro in 2019. After the scandal broke, Flávio Bolsonaro publicly denied ever proposing to change the official status of Our Lady of Aparecida.
An Instagram screenshot shows the non-political nature of the banned, Catholic National Sanctuary of Aparecida account.
Mendonça’s decision
Mendonça’s order seeks to bar the spread of information claiming that “Flavio Nantes Bolsonaro or his family proposed, coordinated, supported, is committed to or intends to promote the removal of Our Lady of Aparecida from the status or title of Patron Saint of Brazil.”
The order also applies to posts that are “substantially equivalent.” Mendonça defined those as posts that use different wording, images, audio, video, memes or other formats, but convey “the same factual core.”
“Flavio says he will issue decree stating that “Brazil belongs to Jesus Christ”, reads last month’s headline. This factual statement has led millions of Brazilians to speculate he will attempt to remove Our Lady of Aparecida’s status.
In practice, the technology companies will have to decide which posts meet that definition. The order instructs the platforms to remove such content “once they become aware of this decision,” without waiting for another specific court order.
Mendonça also said the campaign can notify the companies directly about new posts covered by the order. It does not need to obtain another specific court order first.
Each platform faces a fine of $9,600 per day for failing to comply. The companies have 48 hours to inform the court of the steps they have taken and how many posts they removed.
In 1995 Sérgio Von Helder, a self-proclaimed “bishop” from the Universal Kingdom of God Church, refered to Our Lady of Aparecida as “Satan” and kicked the image of her on a church cable TV program. This image is circulating on social media again.
Mendonça wrote that preventive action by the platforms “cannot become a blanket delegation to the platforms to suppress statements that are politically unfavorable to the candidate.”
The decision does not, however, provide for judicial oversight of the content the companies ultimately decide to remove.
Who is on the list
Mendonça also ordered the removal of a lengthy list of over 1,700 URLs submitted by the Bolsonaro campaign. The order covers those posts in addition to the broader rule applying to future content.
The list includes posts from 87-year old liberation theology icon Leonardo Boff, federal lawmakers Erika Hilton and Ivan Valente, from the Socialism and Liberty Party; Rogério Correia, from the Workers’ Party; former federal deputy Jean Wyllys and the 1.5 million-member strong Landless Rural Workers’ Movement, or MST.
It’s not the first time 87-year old theologian Leonadro Boff, author of “The Tao of Liberation” and 16 other religious books, has been censored. After Cardinal Ratzinger official silenced him in 1992, under Pope John Paul II, he resigned from the priesthood. (image:wikipedia)
The list also includes Facebook posts by Workers’ Party lawmakers Tadeu Veneri and Jonas Reis. Other items on the list include a TikTok video posted by Carmelite friar Gilvander Moreira and a video from the @santuarionacional TikTok account. The account name is used by the National Shrine of Aparecida.
According to figures submitted by Flávio Bolsonaro’s campaign and cited in the decision, the claim appeared in 2,086 posts from 1,674 accounts.
Those posts generated more than 21 million views, about 1.49 million likes and 312,000 shares. Another 1,301 posts appeared after the claim was publicly debunked.
Mendonça said the new order was necessary because removing individual links had not been enough to stop the spread of the claim.
The platforms will also have to use image-matching tools to identify and remove identical copies of a graphic titled, “To please evangelicals, Flávio Bolsonaro coordinates effort to remove Our Lady of Aparecida as Patron Saint of Brazil.”
Juliana Dal Piva is a former Globo newspaper reporter and columnist at UOL. She is the presenter of “The Secret Life of Jair” podcast, and author of the book “O negócio do Jair: a história proibida do clã Bolsonaro," which was a Jabuti literary prize finalist in 2023.
This article originally appeared on ICL, has been translated with their permission, and can be read in its original Portuguese here.