This article analyzes the actions and speeches of catholic intellectuals when defending the teaching of religion in state schools of Paraná from 1922 to 1931. The article bases itself on deputy member Alcidino Pereira's pronouncement, which justified his project for the organisation of optional religious education in state schools. The article is also based on the opinion of the Constitutional and Judicial Commission of the Legislative Congress of Paraná organized by deputy member Azevedo Macedo on the reply given by the author of the project to the opinion of the Commission and on the Catholic magazine A Cruzada. The data is analyzed from the perspective of the intellectual history of education, intending to restore some meaning to the dispute between catholics and anticlericals during the 1920s and early 1930s without, however, neglecting the national and international context as the background to all the activity over the discussion about the presence of religious culture in official teaching establishments.
Intellectuals; The Catholic Church; Religious Education