No alto da serra chega a procissão: estudo de caso dos ativismos da Arquidiocese de Belo Horizonte em defesa da Serra da Piedade (Caeté/MG)

Abstract

This paper presents a case study on the activism of the Catholic Church to protect the Basilica Shrine of Our Lady of Piety (Santuário Basílica da Piedade), located in the Serra da Piedade (Caeté/MG), an environmental preservation area owned by the Archdiocese of Belo Horizonte. The field of legal anthropology was adopted, combining an anthropological perspective on documents and field observations. Through an anthropological stance, this work observes actors, audiences and legal instruments used by the Archdiocese of Belo Horizonte, which allows a view of law beyond its formalities. It starts from the perspective of post-secularism, using strategic secularism and materiality studies to unveil the legal instruments used by the archdiocese as a means of making not only the sanctuary, but the entire Serra da Piedade, a public asset, protected by the state as historical, cultural, religious and environmental heritage. Firstly, a contextualization of the place where the sanctuary is located, in the middle of the Iron Quadrangle of Minas Gerais. Secondly, a historical retrospective is made of the Catholic Church's role in the production of human rights in Brazil, with a special focus on the environmental agenda, which is complemented by Vatican perspectives. Thirdly, by scanning the shrine's website, internal organizations and the work of the archdiocese's main religious authorities in the environmental field are revealed. Finally, in the fourth part of the research, the main lines of argument used by the Church to make the Basílica da Piedade Shrine a public asset are presented from the perspective of the visibilities and materialities they produce, which is achieved using multiple legal instruments by the archdiocese in the fields of public administration, the judiciary and the legislature. Throughout the analysis, the Archdiocese of Belo Horizonte is seen as an institution that can adapt to new contexts, capable of articulating the state apparatus and audiences that go far beyond its faithful to protect its own and collective interests.