Based on documentation found in archives in Brazil and the Vatican, this article discusses the relationship between the state and the Roman Catholic Church in Brazil in the period 1889-1930. The Proclamation of the Republic on 15 November 1889 was associated by some members of Brazilian elites at the time with the ideas of progress and civilization, and one of its first tasks was the extinction of padroado on 7 January 1890. However, the laicism determined at that time under Decree 119-A has proved ambiguous and pragmatic. Freed from the constitutional constraints of the padroado, the state built a new field of relations with different religions according to its institutional interests. In this context, the Roman Catholic Church also initiated a process of ecclesiastical reform and reorganization whose core consisted of the creation of dioceses and similar jurisdictions - a broad and complex territorial, political and discursive process which can be called diocesanization.
state and Church in Brazil; republican modernity; diocesanization
