Padre Leonel Franca e a pedagogia social católica na década de 1930

Abstract

The object of this thesis is priest Leonel Edgard da Silveira Franca’s (1893-1948) intellectual work in favor of the creation of a model of catholic social pedagogy in the 1930s, in the period corresponding to the conferences he held at the Sacré-Coeur de Jesus School and the articles he published in the catholic press. The research question is “How is the catholic social pedagogy revealed in priest Leonel Franca’s writings and actions within the framework of the education public debate of that time?” The general objective is to analyze the concept of catholic social pedagogy as expressed in priest Leonel Franca’s writings and actions in the 1930s. The specific objectives are as follows: 1) To introduce education as part of the catholic church social doctrine and the Companhia de Jesus’s action; 2) To discuss the critique to the pedagogical secularism and the catholic universalism affirmation; e) To examine the critique to the social secularist pedagogy and the catholic social pedagogy affirmation. The research sources include manuscripts from the conferences held by Leonel Franca at the Sacré-Coeur de Jesus school; Jesuit texts published in the press and in part of his bibliographic production; the encyclicals Rerum Novarum (1891), Quadragesimo Anno (1931) and Divini Illius Magistri (1929); and also, The Pedagogical Method of the Jesuits – The Ratio Studiorum (1599), according to the translation and introduction by Leonel Franca (1952, posthumous publication); and the field theory by Pierre Bourdieu (1996, 2002, 2003, 2008, 2015), all used to clarify the catholic social pedagogy in the Brazilian public debate. The analysis process showed Leonel Franca as a wellpositioned intellectual in both the Companhia de Jesus and the religious field, who joined a broad theoretical and political debate where education, society and moral education were intertwined. The discussions prioritized the religious base in human education, thus defending the catholic social pedagogy and education while developing a critique to the pedagogical secularism represented by the New School and Socialist Pedagogy. He also defended the catholic universalism as presented in the social pedagogy, which was supported by principles and guided by practices committed with the material dimension (social pedagogy body) and the spiritual dimension (social pedagogy soul) in human life, or committed to the true purposes of education by recognizing the human beings’ individual dimension (individual), social dimension (subject), and spiritual dimension (person).