This paper focuses on the different interpretations of the Brazilian Education Law of 1966, with special attention to its article 33, reformed in 1997, which regulated the implementation of religious studies in public schools in Brazil. This regulation referred to schools of elementary and secondary levels that are administered by State Governments, through their Secretaries of Education, thus leaving to the States the task of applying the law. We are here considering two specific cases, that of the State of Sao Paulo and that of the State of Santa Catarina, showing how these different interpretations of the law conditioned the possibilities of religious agents to act in the process of capacitating teachers as well as in the definition of the contents of the curricula.
legislation; religious studies; Santa Catarina; São Paulo