The ecumenical leader Jether Pereira Ramalho, at this time editor of magazine Tempo e Presença, of the Ecumenical Center for Documentation and Information (CEDI), today Koinonia, saying that the communion between Catholics and evangelical forces to save lives during the dictatorship resulted in the advancement of ecumenism in Brazil.
The link made by Cardinal Arns, especially for demented torture that befell hundreds of religious in the following decade to 1968, resulted in a meeting with religious promoted in order to gather international support and help to show dissatisfaction in the streets.
After the meeting, the commissioner of human rights of the WCC, Charles Harper, said on "increasing tension between the Church and the authorities." Also reported about the act that brought together 6,000 people in the Penha Church in Sao Paulo to discuss complaints and alternative reaction to state repression. This "was the first time a connection as clear, under the initiative of the Church in Brazil, has been made since 1964 in relation to human rights," said. The invasion of the Pontifical Catholic University of São Paulo (PUC), where Arns which was the Chancellor, with the seizure of a ton of "subversive material and equipment" and the arrest of 1,500 students. This fact showed the force and brutality of the oppressive forces. It was seen as "retaliation against the Church", despite the media control.
The Catholic Church, considered an ally of the first hours of the coup, had nine bishops, 84 priests, 13 seminarians and six nuns, and 273 pastoral agents had prisoners, of whom 34 suffered electric shock torture, and threats sticks macaw in psychological decade. Among the nearly 400 prisoners, there were people with permanent physical and psychological injuries. Because this number is multiplied by the tens through the population and without the media, ideologically tied to the regime, saw the need to take complaints to the outside.
Citizens who were connected with churches or religious were arrested for uttering homilies and sermons denouncing crimes and organized workers' demonstrations that irritated the military. In response to the churches, there were records of seven people killed - among the 18 endangered - arrested as "subversive" or suspected of passing information to dissidents. The organs of repression summoned 75 leaders to testify, demanding the withdrawal of bishops and priests.
The role of the archbishop of Sao Paulo won international support. Raised funds for the maintenance of service to the fronts of political persecution, met with foreign leaders, warned about the human rights violations in Brazil, created networks of contacts, project financiers and supporters of the allegations of crimes against the population, especially in greatest period of decadence and brutality of the regime.
These facts led to the production of reports, testimonies, letters, testimony and information from dissidents of dozens of defendants, who have integrated the three boxes of documents repatriated and sent to the Attorney General's Office, on June 14. The study of this material is part of the defense of the country before the United Nations (UN) and the International Commission on Human Rights (IACHR) of the Organization of American States (OAS), which ruled the country after the Supreme Court (STF) has filed the lawsuit of the Lawyer Association of Brazil (OAB).
The fury against the Cardinal Arns - considered one of "courage, firmness and sense of timing" and that several times threatened - was offset by movements of liberalization at the time that showed the reluctance of the military, fearful of having to answer for violence and corruption. On these occasions the violence broke out again.
In 1979, after the invasion of the PUC, Arns close relationship with Pastor Philip Potter, WCC general secretary, and asked for money - that could not come legally, not to suffer confiscation - for the project Brazil: Never Again, used the book's publication in 1985 of the same name. The survey revealed the names of 444 torturers of 242 torture centers in Brazil and the testimonies of thousands of victims, mapping the repression in the country.
A group of lawyers, coordinated by Arns and Wright took advantage of the access granted for 24 hours on court proceedings and files, to support the proposal of the Amnesty Law, and collected one million pages, sent to the WCC and which were detailed by the 15 years of repression in the country in hundreds of cases.
Arns insisted that "the churches must take the initiative to ensure the publication of this material, that such things did not happen again." He asked the WCC to accept the task of raising the vast majority of the necessary funds in the amount of $ 329,000, and by a "confidential form". Potter's reply, which arrived almost a year later, said he had managed to "raise the bulk of the resources required to complete the special project", which was a donation to the "families of striking workers at ABC," and that research on torture would be released in the churches "around the world."
The processes were copied, sent to São Paulo, transformed into microfilm and sent to Geneva. The carrier that brought the information back to Switzerland came back to Brazil with enough money for the project. Arns informed Potter that money "was being spent strictly in accordance with the approved plans." The task performed by Arns and Wright came up a strong friendship.
When Wright died in 1999, the cardinal sent a message through the Provincial of the Franciscans in Vitória, with condolences to the family and the remembrance of life dedicated to the memory stores. Protestants welcomed Dom Paulo Evaristo Arns, who had given moral support and physical space to those who fought against the dictatorship, including within the Church, and was nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize, but the Brazilian government worked behind the scenes against the proposal.
When traveling to Rome with Dom Aloisio Lorscheider, another Franciscan Cardinal, to defend Leonardo Boff, Arns irritated Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger, Mayor of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith. Boff was silent for almost one year and Arns saw the Archdiocese of São Paulo be divided into four diocesis, months later.
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