Ultramontane Catholicism in a transnational perspective: a comparative study of the cases of Brazil and French Canada (19th century)

• Grant number: 24/22992-0
• Support Opportunities: Scholarships abroad - Research
• Start date: August 15, 2025
• End date: January 29, 2026
• Field of knowledge: Humanities - History - Modern and Contemporary History
• Principal Investigator: Ana Rosa Cloclet da Silva
• Grantee: Ana Rosa Cloclet da Silva
• Host Investigator: Philippe Roy-Lysencourt
• Host Institution: Escola de Ciências Humanas, Jurídicas e Sociais (EHJS). Pontifícia Universidade Católica de Campinas (PUC-CAMP). Campinas , SP, Brazil
• Institution abroad: Université Laval, Canada

Abstract

The project addresses the global dynamics of ultramontane Catholicism, based on a comparative analysis of Catholic publications published in Brazil and French Canada in the second half of the 19th century. Inserted in a global context in which the Holy See formulated and disseminated its uncompromising response to supposed "modern errors", these two quadrants of the American continent were settings for the reception and reworking of the main references of European Catholic traditionalism and of an apologetic theology, which had their main centers of enunciation in France and papal Rome. At the same time, they presented original solutions to the challenges posed by the advance of secularization, which could not be reduced to the legitimist and counterrevolutionary positions hegemonic in European Catholicism. In both, ultramontanism rose in the second half of the 19th century, guiding the actions of clergy and laypeople through newspapers and other publications, based on which a comparative study of ultramontane Catholicism in its discursiveness and institutionality is proposed, highlighting the singularities, common aspects and vectors of its transnational connections. From a methodological point of view, a dialogue is established between Conceptual History and Transnational History, both practically unprecedented in the Sciences of Religion. While the former focuses on the complex relationship between history and language, the latter invests in a relational perspective, capable of highlighting the global connections of phenomena subject to reciprocal determinations, as is the case of Catholicism. In addition to qualified scientific production in the area, the project seeks to consolidate and expand research networks at national and international levels.