The Catholic Church, moral doctrine, and HIV prevention in Recife, Brazil

Negotiating the contradictions between religious belief and the realities of everyday life

Bibliographic Data

ID12720772
AuthorsL F Rios (0000-0002-0767-7845), Francisca Luciana De Aquino (Universidade Federal de Pernambuco), Miguel Muñoz‐laboy (0000-0003-1259-5382, Columbia University), Laura Rebecca Murray (0000-0002-6245-2227, Columbia University, corresponding author), Cinthia De Oliveira (0000-0002-8152-5735, Universidade Federal de Pernambuco), R Parker (0000-0003-3796-0198, Columbia University), Richard G Parker
Year2011
Volume12
Issue4
Pages355-372
Publication date2011-12-01
Open AccessNo
TypeARTICLE
VenueCulture and Religion (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 1475-5610 • E-ISSN: 1475-5629
PublisherInforma UK Limited (PUBLISHER • GB)
DOI10.1080/14755610.2011.633271
PMID22500141
PMCIDPMC3323106
OpenAlexW2026941799
LanguageEN
Citations received1
References cited20

Religious beliefs have had a key role in shaping local responses to HIV and AIDS. As the world's largest Catholic country, Brazil is no exception. Yet little research has been conducted to document how the religious doctrine is enacted in practice among its lay leaders and followers. In this article, we present ethnographic research from Recife, Brazil, conducted to understand the way in which religious doctrines are interpreted on a local level. Contextualized within the sociology of contemporary Brazilian Catholicism, we draw on interviews with clergy members, lay leaders and parishioners in order to discuss how the Catholic Church's vision of sexuality translates into the everyday lives of its followers by. We explore the disjuncture between the Catholic ideals of fidelity and delaying sex until marriage with the everyday reality of the Church's followers, highlighting the role that gender plays in defining sexual roles and expectations. We conclude posing questions for future research and HIV prevention strategies considering the formal institutional response of the Brazilian Catholic Church to AIDS on one hand, and the social and cultural contexts in which Catholics live their daily lives on the other

Doctrine · Epistemology · Everyday life · Human immunodeficiency virus (HIV · Negotiation · Political science · Religious belief · Social science · Sociology · Adolescent Sexual and Reproductive Health · Gender Studies · HIV/AIDS Research and Interventions · Law · Medicine · Philosophy · Religion and Society in Latin America · Virology

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