Pastoral Land Commission (CPT)

The Pastoral Land Commission (Comissão Pastoral da Terra—CPT) is an organ of the Brazilian Catholic Church that deals with the problems of the poor in rural areas. Linked to the progressive sectors of the church, it was officially created in its present form in 1975; its precursor dates back to 1972. The CPT was created in response to a need felt by radical pastoral agents, who sought an end to the widespread violence of landowners and the state against the rural poor during the period of military rule (1964–1985), especially in the Amazon region. It offers legal services, encourages the creation of rural unions, denounces the use of violence against the rural poor, and offers courses in faith and politics.

Since its creation, the CPT has been highly controversial. It regularly clashed with the military government and large landowners, which saw the CPT as obstructionist and even subversive. It has also come under fire from conservative bishops, who believe that the CPT is excessively involved in politics, that it has at times incited peasants to seize land, that it is too close to the Workers' Party, and that it reduces the Bible's message to a political one.

See alsoCatholic Church: The Modern Period; Liberation Theology.

BIBLIOGRAPHY

Commissão Pastoral da Terra, CPT: Pastoral e compromisso (1983).

Vanilda Paiva, ed., Igreja e questão agrária (1985), esp. pp. 129-136, 248-273.

Additional Bibliography

Adriance, Madeleine. Promised Land: Base Christian Communities and the Struggle for the Amazon. Albany, NY: State University of New York Press, 1995.

Poletto, Ivo, and Antônio Canuto. Nas pegadas do povo da terra: 25 anos da Comissão Pastoral da Terra. São Paulo: Edições Loyola, 2002.

                                       Scott Mainwaring