CATHOLICISM IN THE CIVIC AND MORAL EDUCATION TEXTBOOKS DURING THE STROESSNER GOVERNMENT IN PARAGUAY¹

ABSTRACT:

We analyze the confluence between the conception of morality and religion, present in two textbooks of the subject of Civic and Moral Education, intended for high school, produced and used in Paraguay, during Alfredo Stroessner's government (1954 to 1989), amidst the Paraguayan educational reforms of 1957 and 1973, guided by the Ministry of Education and Worship. We analyzed textbooks from the theoretical-methodological framework of content analysis and the history of school subjects, based on the history of Paraguayan education in the dictatorial period. We conclude, analyzing the textbooks on moral and civic education, that Catholic religion served as an argument to convince young people and teenagers to remain pacified, respect "God’s will" in terms of obedience to authority, thus contributing to maintain the organicity of the Paraguayan nation during the dictatorship.

Keywords:
history of education; high school; Catholic religion; dictatorship

RESUMO:

Perscrutamos sobre a confluência entre a concepção de moral e de religião, presente em dois livros didáticos da disciplina escolar Educacíon Civica y Moral, destinados ao ensino secundário, produzidos e utilizados no Paraguai, durante o governo de Alfredo Stroessner (1954 a 1989), em meio às reformas educacionais paraguaias de 1957 e 1973, pautadas pelo Ministério da Educação e Culto. Analisamos os livros didáticos a partir dos referenciais teórico-metodológicos da análise de conteúdo e da história das disciplinas escolares, tendo como base a história da educação paraguaia no período ditatorial. Concluímos, pela análise dos livros didáticos de educação moral e cívica, que a religião católica serviu como argumento para convencer os jovens e adolescentes a se manterem pacíficos, respeitando a “vontade de Deus”, no que diz respeito à obediência à autoridade, contribuindo assim, para manter a organicidade da nação paraguaia durante a ditadura.

Palavras-chave:
história da educação; ensino secundário; religião católica; ditadura

RESUMEN:

Analizamos la confluencia entre la concepción de moral y religión, presente en dos libros de texto de la asignatura de Educación Cívica y Moral, destinados a la educación secundaria, producidos y utilizados en Paraguay, durante el gobierno de Alfredo Stroessner (1954 a 1989), en medio de las reformas educativas paraguayas de 1957 y 1973, guiadas por el Ministerio de Educación y Culto. Analizamos los respectivos libros de texto desde el marco teórico-metodológico del análisis de contenido y de la historia de las disciplinas escolares, desde la historia de la educación paraguaya en el período dictatorial. Concluimos, analizando los libros de texto sobre educación moral y cívica, que la religión católica sirvió de argumento para convencer a los jóvenes y adolescentes de permanecer pacificados, respetando la “voluntad de Dios” en términos de obediencia a la autoridad, contribuyendo así a mantener la organicidad de la nación paraguaya durante la dictadura.

Palabras clave:
historia de la educación; bachillerato; religión católica; dictadura

INTRODUCTION QUESTIONS

We understand, as stated by Certeau (2011, p. 151), that during the 17^th and 18^th centuries, there was a rupture between religion and moral, making “effective its distinction and problematic its ulterior connection”. We aim to investigate the presence of Catholicism in the subject Moral and Civic Education (Educación Cívica y Moral), in Paraguay, using two textbooks as the main sources: Educacíon Civica y Moral (1959[?]) and Nociones Generales de Educacíon Civica (1973), both used in high school. We question the confluence between “moral” and “religion” in those textbooks. Our hypothesis is that the moral content was mainly religious, considering the influence of the Catholic Church in Paraguayan education in the period, with the creation of the Ministry of Education and Worship, during the government of Dictator Alfredo Stroessner, from 1954 to 1989.

Catholicism was the official religion of Paraguay until the promulgation of the current constitution in 1992, which, in the article 24, guarantees to all Paraguayan citizens the freedom of religion, of worship, and ideology⁴. In Paraguayan constitutions in action during the creation and circulation of the textbooks analyzed, i.e., the 1940 and the 1967 constitutions - “Roman Catholic Church” was presented as the official religion, but proclaiming the tolerance to other worships, as long as they “did not oppose public moral and order” (PARAGUAY, Constitución, 1940, Art. 3). The substitution of the 1940 Constitution to the 1967 one, was due mainly to the Stroessner’s need to legitimate his permanence in power. In the 1967 Constitution, following the traditional conception, the Roman Catholic Church was declared, once again, the official religion (PARAGUAY, Constitución, 1967, Art. 6.).

Associated to the officialization of Catholicism in Paraguay, Stroessner created the Ministry of Education and Worship, through the Decree-Law n. 46/1954, transferring the Department of Worship, then under the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, to the Ministry of Education, according to Horak (1995, p. 124). The decree justifies the incorporation of the Department of Worship to the Ministry of Education by stating that: “the attention to the working of numerous educational institutions belonging to religious entities, spread in the entire Republic, corresponds, by its specific character, to the Ministry of Education, thus the recommendation to transfer the Department of Worship from the Chancellery to the Ministry of Education” (Decreto n. 46 del 8 de noviembre de 1954 apudSEIFERHELD; D`ALESSANDRO, 2017, p. 63).

The interest of the Catholic Church for the educational dimension can be historically explained by the need to maintain its privileged position in the game for power. As affirmed by Cambi (1999, p. 257), such interest is explained by the renewed conception of man created by the Tridentine theology, in the end of the 16^th century. Since then, the Church conceives men as sinners whose redemption comes not only by faith but also through their works, thus imposing an educational intervention to help men “repress their instincts” and acquire the habits of a “good Christian”, especially during their youth. Such precepts are in consonance with people’s passivity, expected by authoritarian governments, such as that of Stroessner, who, during his ruling justified the strengthening of religious education to oppose doctrines considered “ungodly”.

Besides the predominance of educational institutions from religious groups, as shown in the decree, in the 1960s Paraguayan education was mainly defined by schools in rural and semi-urban regions, with high levels of grade retention and dropout, quality difference between rural and urban schools, limited access to high school, strong proportion of non-qualified professionals, and the lack of attention to the linguistic modalities of the population, according to Roesler (2017, p. 9).

Between 1960 and 1970, Paraguayan population grew 3.5% a year, according to the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization - UNESCO (NASSIF, RAMA and TEDESCO, 1984). In 1970, 68% of the population in school age was enrolled in primary school. According to Seiferheld and D`alessandro (2017, p. 36), between 1970 and 1975, the yearly percentage of enrollment was 1.5%.

According to Sandoval (2012, p. 71), between 1957 and 1973, the number of students enrolled in primary education went from 360,000 to 900,000, a number still smaller than the population in school age. Between 1973 and 1994, the number climbed from 900,000 to 1,800,000 encompassing almost the whole population in school age⁵. The author states that, according to the populational census, between 1972 and 2002, the young people between 15 and 24 year old demanding access to secondary and higher education increased.

Sandoval (2012, p. 71) explains that the lack of an industrialization process, associated to the loss of investment opportunities in the secondary sector of Paraguayan economy, “from the revenue produced with the construction of Itaipu power plant, and the successive degradation of rural production”, led to the 1983 crisis, resulting in a population growth “which started to migrate to the cities, increasing the pressure on the job market”. In this period, Stroessner’s dictatorship “increased the number of teaching positions, as well as the number of teachers, to insert part of the rural population in public work”. Such governmental strategy increased the clientelistic base of Partido Colorado and the support of the dictatorial regime, as explained by the author.

Roesler (2017) affirms that Stroessner’s discourse showed itself in Paraguayan education through textbooks and its content, which taught that the president aimed to make Paraguay a peaceful and orderly nation. To observe the confluence between moral and religious conceptions in the Moral and Civic education textbooks produced and used in Paraguay during Stroessner’s government, we located and analyzed printed copies of the textbooks Educacíon Civica y Moral (no author, 1959[?]) and Nociones Generales de Educacíon Civica, by María Elina Olmedo Jiménez (1973). Such analysis considers Le Goff’s statement that the study of school manuals grants us a privileged perspective and the best viewpoints to study historical mentality, starting in the 19^th century, with the progress of school education (primary, secondary, and higher education)(LE GOFF, 2006 [1977], p. 75).

Besides the selected textbooks, we used the work and the sources available in Relaciones entre autoritarismo y educación en el Paraguay, by David Velázquez Seiferheld and Sandra D`Alessandro (2017). The authors present statistical data, decrees, speeches, and educational reforms on the dictatorial period. As pointed out by Telesca (2010, p. 2), “the historiographical production on Paraguay is sparse when compared to other regions”, as well as its sources. As a theoretical reference to analyze the selected textbooks, we used the content analysis proposed by Laurence Bardin (1977, p. 98) that presupposes the rules of exhaustion, homogeneity, and pertinence. However, considering the lack of available sources, we consider the statement that “the historian can make arrows from any wood” (JULIA, 2001, p. 17), watchful to the evidences, as proposed by Ginzburg (1992, p. 169), in the evidential paradigm, “reading the clues” and creating a coherent narrative from such traces.

To present our study, we divided the text in three parts: in the first we present the two textbooks analyzed, produced in the context of Paraguayan educational reforms in 1957 and 1973. In the second part, we analyze the content disposition and the objectives of the textbooks. In the third part, we approach the confluence between morality and religion present in these books, mainly, when dealing with the theme of family, as it was evident in our analysis.

SECONDARY LEVEL TEXTBOOKS IN THE CONTEXT OF EDUCATIONAL REFORMS

During Alfredo Stroessner’s dictatorship in Paraguay, the government established two educational reforms, the first in 1957 and the second in 1973, both with the support of UNESCO and the United States (USAID), through the Servicio Cooperativo Interamericano de Educación (SCIDE) (ELÍAS; CHAPARRO, 2015). According to Sandoval (2012), the 1973 Reform marked the second part of Stroessner’s dictatorship and was enacted until the end of his government. It was then revised during the democratic transition.

The textbooks selected for the analysis targeted secondary students and were created based on the respective educational reforms, thus, corresponding to the two parts of this dictatorship.

Secondary education was among the targets of the 1957 Reform. In a testimonial, Raúl Peña, Minister of Education, stated that:

Nowadays, primary education is not enough to confront the needs of life [...] the reform aims to establish […] the idea that high school is the education of teenage hood, whose formation must have a firm moral base and Paraguayan values. All Paraguayans have the right to this integral education, highlighting that traditional tendency to covert secondary school only as a preparatory lever for university”” (Ministerio de Educación y Culto, 1957 apudSEIFERHELD; D`ALESSANDRO, 2017, p. 40).

While we can see an attempt to break away from the elitist paradigm of secondary school, when questioning the sole role of high school as a preparation for university, the discourse of the Paraguayan minister emphasizes the importance of religious belief in official education, already part of Paraguayan education since early 20^th century, stressing the need to impose Christian values to moral education, as part of the content given to teenagers.

The 1957 Educational Reform established a basic cycle of 3 years for secondary level courses offered in Paraguay. After these 3 years, the student could continue in the Bachillerato, opt for a teaching degree (mainly for women) in the Normal course, or the Commerce course.

The distribution of curriculum content in the study program, until the basic cycle, prescribed by the 1957 Paraguayan Educational reform was the following:

Table 1
- Curriculum content of the 1957 Paraguayan Educational

Curriculum content	Percentage
Language Education ( or expressive abilities)	23.44%
Scientific Education (Mathematics, society)	31.25%
Social and Philosophical Education ( moral, civics, philosophy)	23.96%
Artistic Education	13.54%
Physical Education	7.81%

• Source: Seiferheld and D`alessandro (2017, p. 44).

The first textbook we analyze here (1957[?]) is part of the curriculum content of “Social and philosophical education”, which included moral, civism, and philosophy, corresponding to the same proportion to Language Education, as in the table above. However, in Seiferheld and D`alessandro’s (2017, p. 17) interpretation, the curriculum content in the 1957 educational reform and in 1973 one, had a less humanistic guidance and more grounded by technocratic guidelines, focusing the job market⁶.

The textbook Educación Cívica y Moral has 137 pages, organized in 11 chapters. Each one preceded by a summary of corresponding topics, but there is no index or general summary. At the end of each chapter, there are practical exercises and/or suggestions of practical works. Some chapters have an “appendix” with proposals for complementary reading. The book cover with the Hiram⁷ and the Lions Club International ⁸ symbols and the name of the subject rewritten in ink, what reminds us, in the words of Goulart (2014, p. 9), that “more than keeping a text, the book also keeps the reading practices of those who have read” (GOULART, 2014, p. 9). Besides the cover, there are other evidences of book uses, with writings and drawings in the pages. The work analyzed is in good condition, but the quality of the available copy in some pages hinders reading (shaken and/or too refined handwriting). The first two pages, possibly with a presentation/protocol, were illegible. The work has no images.

Educación Cívica y Moral has no author, nor publication date. Seiferheld and D`alessandro (2017, p. 71) note that “books edited before the 1980s in Asunción […] did not always have the year of edition on them, until now we can find different copies in second-hand bookshops, making it difficult to establish its edition date”. To the authors, the omission of edition year in the textbooks during Stroessner’s government “can be seen as corresponding to the immutability of the processes and changes in Stroessner’s Paraguay”, as if school content was always in force. However, we found an evidence that the year of publication might have been 1959, considering the following statement in chapter 2: “ In the course of last year, in 1958, North American tribunals sent a commission of judges to Europe to solve a very serious social problem: the continuous increase of juvenile delinquency and criminality” (EDUCACIÓN..., 1959[?], p. 17).

The 1973 Educational Reform adopted the technique of “Planning as System” focused on producing the knowledge necessary to the job world and the production of “human capital”. The “Educational Innovations” foreseen in the reform “corresponded to a technocratic and scientific-based paradigm of education and pedagogy”, affirmed Seiferheld and D`Alessandro (2017, p. 46; 50). The curriculum reform established increased the number of hours to mathematical and natural sciences subjects and reduced the social subjects, condensed into “Social Studies”.

We believe that the second textbook analyzed, Nociones Generales de Educación Cívica, by María Elina Olmedo Jiménez, published in 1973, by the publishing house “El Triunfo” in Assunción, Paraguay, considers the 1973 Reform, as it is written in the book cover “Revised and updated according to the latter national laws”. Another evidence is Elíaz’s (2014) explanation, when affirming that the 1973 Paraguayan Educational Reform was the result of a process that started with the 1967 Paraguayan Constitution, and resulted in the educational diagnosis done in 1968 and the First National Seminary on Educational Development, in 1970, with the establishment of a commission in charge of drawing the project of educational innovations and the creation of the Technical Staff on Educational Curriculum and Management.

Nociones Generales de Educación Cívica targets the students of the “4^th course of Bachillerato Humanisica y comercial” ⁹. It has 173 pages, divided in 6 contents, distributed in 13 chapters, two of them with complementary readings. All chapters are preceded by a summary of the corresponding topic, but have no index or general summary. There are also highlights and marks of use. There are no images, but a schematic table to explain on the “Derecho positivo” (Positive Right) (chapter 2, p. 21). There are no practical exercises, but suggests in the prologue that “the development of the program requires explanations to be nuanced with practical examples filled by everyday life in which students could be the actors” (JIMÉNEZ, 1973, p. 6).

On the authorship, Seiferheld and D`alessandro (2017, p. 74) affirmed that “for the bachillerato, a non-obligatory cycle, there were basically the books or textbooks from well-known authors, ‘recommended’ by the Ministry of Education and Worship, generally professionals close to the regime”. When researching about María Elina Olmedo Jiménez, author of Nociones Generales de Educación Cívica, we discovered her participation in the Liga Paraguaya Pro Derechos de la Mujer (Paraguayan League for Women’s Rights) in the 1950s-1960s. According to Bareiro, Soto and Monte (1993, p. 118), this league was partially composed by women connected to the government. In the July 25, 1961 edition of the newspaper “El País”, quoted by the authors, the “doctor María Elina Olmedo Jiménez” is presented as one of the “distinguished speakers” in the promulgation act of Law 707, on the political rights of Paraguayan women¹⁰.

Figure 1
Covers of the books Educacíon Civia y Moral (1959?) and Nociones Generales de Educación Cívica (1973).

We will analyze the textbooks Educación Cívica y Moral (1959[?]) and Nociones Generales de Educación Cívica (1973) aiming to show the confluence between the curriculum content of moral and civic education and its relation with the official religion in the country, Catholicism. We are aware that religion was an element that composed the subject moral and civic education, as could also be seen in Brazil, according to Onghero (2007, p. 122). To this author, the subject Educação Moral e Cívica (EMC- Moral and Civic Education) in Brazil would not exist without religious moral, as God would be key for most humanity values. However, in the case of Brazil, as a laic country differently from Paraguay, the subject was not connected to any specific church. EMC should be taught through the understanding of a Natural Religion. Gusmão and Honorato (2019, p. 5), when analyzing the subject Moral and Civic Education in Brazil, affirmed that there was an effort to suit students’ personalities in the entanglement between obligations and responsibilities to be enacted in relation to “Nation, God, family, and work”.

To Seiferheld e D`Alessandro (2017, p. 56), the 1957 Paraguayan Educational Reform¹¹ incorporated Catholic values to education as a part of a legitimation strategy of Stroessner’s dictatorship, justifying the strengthening of religious education against doctrines considered to be “ungodly”, as in the discourse of Stroessner in 1961:

[...] we have disseminated the culture of our land, with the creation of colleges and schools [...] we have strengthened the religious and Christian faith of our people with attention to the temples in whose domes we see the elevation of the nation’s soul, and the guardians of a moral defending us against all the doctrines of impiety”. (Discurso del Gral. Stroessner el 1 de abril de 1961 al Congreso apud SEIFERHELD; D`ALESSANDRO, 2017, p. 56).

Such statement leads us to interpret the textbooks analyzed here as a product of the educational policies in force, according to the educational reforms of 1957 and 1973 in Paraguay, respectively. As affirmed by Apple (1996), textbooks are a strategic mechanism to control school curriculum, because the way the way the curricular knowledge is organized and presented in these materials act as an important mechanism of technical control over teaching practices. As shown by Elías (2014, p. 15), when analyzing the educational reforms in Paraguay in Stroessner’s period, “education was a reason of concern and control for the government, given its importance as an ideological and indoctrination instrument”. As affirmed by Martínez Bonafé (1995), school manuals work as a privileged artifact for the vigilance power on what should be “normal” in school. In this sense, the textbooks selected will be analyzed here, as presented by Escolano (2009, p. 172), as a space of memory and a mirror to society, representing values, attitudes, stereotypes, and ideologies that characterize the dominant mentality of a certain time.

When analyzing textbooks as a source (MOREIRA, 2017; DELGADO, 2017), we are attentive to understand how “historical-educational heritage”, composing school material culture, as well as an object of “multiple facets”, according to Bittencourt (2004, p. 301), when affirming that “they have or can have different roles, depending on the conditions of the place and moment they are produced and used in the different school situations”. We should note that the studies on textbooks have contributed to broaden or deepen the knowledge on School Subject History (CHERVEL, 1990) ¹² as distinguished characteristics of secondary education, due to the organization of didactic work into subjects.

DISPOSITION AND OBJECTIVES OF THE CHAPTERS IN THE ANALYZED TEXTBOOKS

The presentation of the objectives, in the aforementioned textbooks, besides presenting the intentions printed in each book and the target audience, content, and formation, give evidence on the relation established with the theme of religion¹³.

When generally presenting the objectives of the contents and subject, the textbook Educación cívica y moral questions its own title and affirms that to keep the hierarchy of education “we should invert the order of the terms and have moral and civics because the person is a moral being before being a citizen and moral education, that is to say the formation of moral virtues make it possible the development of civic virtues” (EDUCACIÓN …, 1959[?], p. 3). It continues:

The objective of the notions of moral and civic life we will offer in the different chapters is the to form teenagers, men and women, born in the center of a determined family, in a concrete social environment, and characterized by their own laws and costumes, without ignoring that the teenager is situated, through the possibilities of the spirit, in a being with its own purpose, to which education should help to reach. (EDUCACIÓN..., 1959?, p. 3).

As the authors explain, the notions of moral and civic life are not the content of ‘one more’ subject in the school curriculum, nor aim to prepare for a specific profession, but to educate, more than instruct, offering an intellectual ground for the practical actions of everyday life, “to live an honest and virtuous life, that benefits not only the person, but the society around” (EDUCACIÓN..., 1959[?], p. 3).

When presenting the contents of the subject, they affirm that, if our social nature is the immediate cause of social gathering, “the ultimate purpose of it is God, author of all our nature” (EDUCACIÓN..., 1959[?], p. 10). The authors of Educación Cívica y Moral remind that “the political Independence, reached in May 1811, did not reject […] Catholic religion” (EDUCACIÓN..., 1959[?], p. 18). Moreover, they highlight that “today religion continues to be a powerful national bond, in the joyful manifestations of the people in their patron saint festivities, as well as in the great national milestones, as the Holy Week or the festivities of the Virgen de Caacupé (EDUCACIÓN..., 1959[?], p. 110).

According to this textbook, societies are classified as spiritual and temporal. To exemplify it affirms that: “the Church wants salvation of the souls, that is a very different spiritual end from the one proposed by a commercial or sporting society, the ends of which are temporal or material” (EDUCACIÓN..., 1959[?], p. 11). We can see that though the authors recognize the differences between existing social orders, they affirm and reinforce the sovereignty of the religious order, having “God” as the final cause.

Comparing the works analyzed here, it seems that Educación cívica y moral targeted the 3^rd course of the basic cycle¹⁴, aiming to show the organization principles of human society. The work Nociones Generales de Educación Cívica, for those in the 4^th course of the basic cycle, deals with Paraguayan society as a group, according to the legal-political order in the country.

On the purposes of the subject and the contents of the book in question, Olmedo Jiménez (1973, p. 6) in the prologue of the book states that:

We consider it appropriate here to repeat what we said in our explanatory statement brought by the Comisión de Reforma de la Enseñanza Media following the Programa de Educación Cívica y Moral that the explanation of this program demands from the teacher a perspective of unity. There will be no benefit to the student and the reform will be nothing but an empty word, continuing with a mentality of closed compartments that makes the study of law a memory repetition, a cold and mechanic enunciation of law articulations”¹⁵.

The author emphasizes the need for teachers and students to consider the content of the subject and the book in question during the teaching-learning process in its integrity, considering a certain perspective of the subject contents. Regarding the religious themes, Olmedo Jiménez (1973, p. 10-11) affirms that the distinction between moral and religion took place with the emergence of Greek philosophy and that the distinction between moral and Law happened latter, in Rome. In modern times, as stated by the author, we recognize the specific field of each of those sciences. When distinguishing moral and legal laws, the author mentions religious laws “that governs the relation of men with God. Religion means connection, union”. To the author “the moral and the rights of people in the Western world are rooted in Christianity as a religion” (JIMÉNEZ, 1973, p. 12).

When referring to natural right, the author affirms it is an “unwritten law, supreme, universal, born before any other law, previous to the oldest of the cities and that we learn from nature itself”. She refers to Saint Thomas Aquinas, a Christian author dedicated to the natural right, saying that “God the creator guides with wisdom all things, all creatures to their ultimate end” (JIMÉNEZ, 1973, p. 18-19). When distinguishing the natural right, as unwritten and universal, the positive right, written, constant in the legal norms of each country and, therefore, particular, Olmedo Jiménez affirms that:

The natural right is moral, universal in its principles, based in human personality, that is, have rational man as the subject, created by a free and responsible God, consequently, to accomplish the its intended purpose. (JIMÉNEZ, 1973, p. 19).

In our opinion, there is a confluence of statements in both books when recognizing the universality of natural right, including religion as a natural, timeless, universal, and unquestionable given. The authors of Educación... (1959[?], p. 3) affirm that human being is, through the possibilities of his spirit, “a being with its own end, that education should help achieve”, and Olmedo Jiménez (1973, p. 19) presents the human being as created by God, free and responsible to fulfil its own divine purpose.

We created the table below to situate, in each analyzed textbook, the presence of words with a religious nature. To create this table, we fully read the works, highlighting and counting the words connected to religious topics/contents, such as “spirit/spirituality”, which, in some moments, is referred to as the “spirit of a time” (EDUCACIÓN..., 1959[?], p. 6). We have not excluded those words. Such occurrences were included to quantify them fully:

Table 2
- Words of religious nature in the analyzed textbooks

Words	Pages in Educación cívica y moral (1959[?])	Pages in Nociones generales de Educación cívica (1973)
Soul	1, 11, 36, 84, 87	--
Catholic; Catholicism	18,19,21 (2x), 41 (2x), 94, 110 (3x)	38, 65, 66, 165
Punishment	41	--
Christianism/Christian	12, 13,18, 22, 117, 122	11, 18, 99
Worship	12, 20, 42, 44, 63, 110	67, 163
God/Author of Nature	10 (4x), 17, 19, 20, 21, 34, 38, 40, 41 (2x), 60, 62, 63, 84, 85,89 (2x), 94, 108, 126	11,18, 19
Divine	67	--
Spirituality/ spirit/Spiritual forces	3, 4, 6, 10, 11, 15, 17, 22, 32, 33, 34, 35, 40, 41, 52, 60, 61, 65, 67, 69, 75 (2x), 77, 84, 85, 86, 87, 88 (2x), 89, 113, 114, 120, 121 (2x), 122 (3x), 129, 132	153
Faith	8, 9, 108,	--
Church	10,11 (2x), 12,14,19,20 (3x),35,36,40 (2x),41 (3x),42,52,66,84, 89, 116	58,65,67, 71
Pope	12, 85, 126,	--
Religion/Religious	4, 6, 11, 13, 14, 18, 20 (5x), 21, 32, 33, 34, 35, 36, 38, 40 (2x), 41, 42, 61, 62 (6x), 63 (2x), 69,84, 94, 108 (4x), 110 (3x), 130	10, 11, 12,45,65,66,67,81,106,126,146, 153
Sacrament/Sacred	13, 18, 20 (2x), 36	67
Holy scriptures /Bible	13, 17, 24	--
Priest/pastor	20 (2x), 21,	69
Salvation	11, 40	--

• Source: Created by the writers from the analyzed textbooks.

The table above shows a quantitative emphasis in words with religious/Christian/Catholic nature for the textbook Educación cívica y moral (1959[?]). In total, this book has three times more the number of religious words than the book Nociones Generales de Educación Cívica (1973). Another point is the presence of words that subjectively carry religiousness, such as: “soul”, “Bible/ Holy scriptures”; “punishment”; “faith”, “divine wisdom”; and “salvation”, present in the first book and absent in the second. Another word, specific to the Catholic religions, was “Pope”, quoted three times in the first book and not in the second.

The expression “Spirituality/Spiritual forces” is the most recurrent in Educación cívica y moral (1959[?]), and appears once in Nociones Generales de Educación Cívica (1973). The other most recurrent expressions in the first book were “religion”, “God”, and “Church”. In Nociones Generales de Educación Cívica (1973) the word “religion” was the most recurrent.

Besides the different authors and editing, that might have influenced the creation of each work, it is worth noting that each textbook analyzed here was written in different contexts, despite being under Stroessner’s dictatorial government (1954-1989). Besides this, they correspond to the different phases of secondary course. Different National Constitutions guided these textbooks, what may have also affected their differences. As affirmed, the 1940 Constitution, as well as the 1967 one, established Roman Catholic Church as the official religion of Paraguay. However, there were subtle differences regarding the opening to other religions.

The 1940 Constitution affirms in Art.3 that “other cults are tolerated when not opposed to the moral and public order” (our highlight). The 1967 Constitution has one more article on religion that was not in the previous constitution (1940), showing a subtle freedom to Paraguayans to profess an teach other religions, besides the Catholic one, as long as maintaining the public order:

Article 70. - The freedom of consciousness and the right to profess, teach, and disseminate any religion freely and worshi´p practice are guaranteed in the territory of the Republic, when they do not oppose the good costumes and the public order. Nobody can invoke their beliefs to elude the compliance of the laws; neither prevent others to exercise their rights. (PARAGUAY, 1967, p. 8)

This article also leaves room to interpret that no religion, not even the official Catholicism, could compromise or overcome the following of the civil rights laws in the country. We believe that such distinctions grounded the content of analyzed textbooks, regarding the prominence each work gives to the religion theme, as part of moral and civic education.

When considering in which theme units of the textbooks we found religious words (presented in table 2), we have identified the chapters/curriculum content religion had more focus. We have concluded that the textbook Educación cívica y moral (1959[?]) emphasized the religion theme in the three first chapters dealing with: the definition and objectives of the subject; the contents on social order and family; and the processes of social integration by education and its institutions, such as the Church. Other chapters that approach the content through a religious perspective are the VII and IX, on the origin, organization, and purposes of Paraguay as a national State, referring to the contents of the 1940 National Constitution; and on the traditions, language, religion, and country, respectively. The other chapters give less emphasis on religion (acc. to the work summary in Appendix A). For the authors, “having the same religion within a national community indubitably contributes to narrow the connections awakened by the feeling of nationality” (EDUCACIÓN..., 1959[?], p. 108).

In the book Nociones Generales de Educación Cívica, the author presents occurrences of the religious theme in two chapters. First, when dealing with “social order”, the title of the 1^st unit. It is also on the 6^th chapter on the unit about the “private order” of positive right, when refereeing to the individual rights and family as social institution (acc.to the summary of the work in Appendix B). According to the book prologue, signed by the author, the two first chapters aimed to examine the general sources of the rules that regulate the behavior of society in the public and private order. The two following ones deal with the 1967 Constitution. Chapters V to X deal with Private Rights. The others are on Public Rights.

Summing up, we observe that the book Educación Cívica y Moral (1959[?]) presents more religious contents when compared to Nociones Generales de Educación Cívica (1973), having in common the first chapter of each book and the chapter on family. Saint Thomas of Aquinas (1225-1274) is present in both works (pages 34 and 18, respectively), but Immanuel Kant (1724-1804), for example with his definition of moral that establishes reason and the autonomy of individuals as theoretical principals, was not mentioned in any work. As stated by Moura (1978)when referring to the Catholic ideas in Brazil in the 20^th century, the most valued and indicated philosophical precepts of the Church were those defended by Saint Thomas of Aquinas, guiding the studies of Catholic universities and seminars. Thomas’s philosophy overlays the power of faith to that of reason and is guided by the respect of authority and hierarchy. Such medieval principles were consistent to Stroessner’s authoritarian government, grounded on the model of Paraguayan education connected to the Catholic Church.

We believe that Kant was not a philosopher considered in the textbooks in question because in the theory of Kantian moral, the concept of autonomy is central. To Kant, the figure of God is unnecessary, as the foundation and justification of morality, as the rational man is the only author of the precept according to which will is determined. The authorship of this moral law does not belong to a supreme being: “No being, not even God, can, therefore, be the author of moral laws because they are not originated from the will, but from practical need”, states Kant in Lições de Ética (apud KRASSUSKI, 2011, p. 169). To Kant, moral or ethical rules compose practical philosophy, presenting itself in the form or duty and order the moral life of rational beings”¹⁶.

CONFLUENCES BETWEEN MORALITY AND CATHOLIC RELIGION IN THE ANALYZED TEXTBOOKS

We have approached the confluence between morality and Catholicism in these textbooks from the definition of morality in both works and, especially, the contents about the concept of family. As stated by Cambi (1999, p. 257), the Catholic Church “in this educational work aiming to preserve childhood from the moral corruption of society”, since the 16^th century, gave “great prominence to church”. To make this “formation work” more incisive, “rigorous rules” are prepared “which act on the consciousness and behaviors, mainly of young people, guiding them towards obedience and submission to authority”, states the author, “presenting itself in the family as submission to the father and to the uses and costumes imposed by him […] and in all social relations as an acceptance of the established order”.

However, it is worth considering that the themes involving religion in the analyzed textbooks, especially Educación cívica y moral (1959[?]) are present in many other contents, as those defining the processes of social interaction, educational institutions, the circles of social activity, etc., highlighting the role of Catholic Church as a social institution and “the Paraguayan nation under the protection of God Almighty, Supreme Legislator of the Universe” (EDUCACIÓN..., 1959[?], p. 89 and 94).

The second book (1973) does not emphasize the content on morality rules, sticking to the “general notions of civic education”, as indicated in the title of the book itself. As we have affirmed, this is different from the first book. When presenting the concept of moral, the first book (1959[?]) relates morality and, to a certain degree, even Law, within a Christian sphere, using the “Lord’s ten commandments” when affirming that

moral, as a norm of human conduct rests, then, in the religious rules; and when these norms are sanctioned, furthermore, through law emerges positive right. From the ten commandments of the Lord, the first two rule Christians’ conduct with God, the other eight are moral precepts to regulate human conduct and, as such, have been incorporated to the right of civilized peoples. (EDUCACIÓN..., 1959[?], p. 41).

The second book succinctly presents the definition of moral, distinguishing it with the definition of Law, using, as an example, the practice of giving alms, with no direct reference to religion or God. To Olmedo Jiménez (1973, p. 11), moral aims the perfection of the human being:

The action field of moral is broader than the right. In fact, moral reaches the depths of consciousness, unlike law. The moral law is not demanded by force, instead it is the law; alms belong to the moral order, you cannot demand by sentence that a person gives alms, but you can order the debtor to pay his debt. The moral aims the perfection of human beings, the law, in turn, aims to allow the coexistence of men in society. (JIMÉNEZ, 1973, p. 11).

According to the authors of the first book, moral progress “is the other facet of spiritual progress”, favoring human growth, that can have another degree, having Christian life as an attitude, “raising it from the merely human plan to the supernatural plan: the life of grace”. (EDUCACIÓN..., 1959[?], p. 121; 122).

In both books, mainly the first, there seem to be an understanding on the existence of three key fundaments for men’s full life: family; civil society, and Church. However, the religious discourse is not restricted to the scope of the Church, but permeates all societies, as an amalgam of Paraguayan ideal society.

Regarding the studies on family, according to Seiferheld and D`Alessandro (2017, p. 96) the manuals and reading books during Stroessner’s dictatorship presented the patriarchal model as the only viable one to Paraguayan society with a “moralizing purpose that coincides with the public policies to homogenize and standardize society””. The authors affirm that it is a “rigid, static, uniform, and hierarchical model in which the father would have the authority, the mother the understanding, and the children should have respect”. (SEIFERHELD AND D`ALESSANDRO, 2017, p. 96).

In Educación Cívica y Moral the concept of family was presented as a social basic unit, justifying that the inclusion in civil society is done through family. According to the authors, patriarchal family was losing its previous characteristics of father’s absolute authority and “the dissemination of Christianity softened this authority, giving dignity back to the woman, wife, and mother, establishing a limit to the despotic power that, at the time, the customs gave to the father over the children”. The concept of family in the late 1950s was “only by parents and children”, established as an “institution of religious, moral, and legal nature” (EDUCACIÓN..., 1959?, p. 12; 13; 14). Marriage, in Educación Cívica y Moral is presented as

[…] the stable and lasting union between a single man and a single woman that put their life and goods in common to fulfill the purposes of human and social life, that is, to found a family, educate children, mutually help each other, transmitting the religious, moral, and social values received by their elders. (EDUCACIÓN..., 1959[?], p. 13).

On her turn, based on the civil marriage law in power in Paraguay, Olmedo Jiménez (1973, p. 66) defines marriage as: “a social institution through which two people of different sexes are united to continue the species and the other material, cultural, and moral purposes needed to develop the human person”. According to the author, marriage should consider three aspects: “the natural, the civil, and the religious” (JIMÉNEZ, 1973, p. 67).

Regarding the obligations between parents and children, quoted on the book Educación Cívica y Moral, the authors emphasize the importance of children’s “obedience and respect” related to parents’ “legitimate authority” that, when elderly, should be helped their by children, considering the “cardinal virtue” of “filial piety”, as show in the “sacred scriptures”. Quoting Pope Pius XII they affirm that [...] “‘one of the greatest contributions to the common good in society is to form stable and firm places in which the example of virtual, discipline, and work of parents in the daily school of children”; on the families of this type peace and well-being in society is established” (EDUCACIÓN..., 1959[?], p. 12). In Nociones Generares de Educacion Cívica, the author affirms that children own “respect and obedience” to the parents, according to the “art. 266 of the code”, which establishes that

children own respect and obedience to their parents. Even when emancipated they are obliged to take care of them in their old age, when in a state of dementia, or sick, and to provide to their needs in all circumstances of life in which their help is indispensable (JIMÉNEZ, 1973, p. 79, emphasis in the original).

The author recognizes in this law “one more example of moral precept sanctioned by law. The obedience of children is correlated to the authority of parents” (JIMÉNEZ, 1973, p. 80). For the authors of Educación Cívica y Moral, “just as it is impossible for a boy to doubt the origin of the family and the authority of the father, one cannot discuss or doubt the origin of the State, the power, and the authority of rulers”. For the authors, the State authority, on its turn, “derives from the will of the people freely manifested and originated in God” (EDUCACIÓN..., 1959[?], p. 84; 89).

It is worth mentioned, as affirmed by Fariña (2003, p. 306), that the archbishop of Asunción imposed that “citizenship respects and obeys ‘the authorities established, whoever they are’, as a ‘condition of stability of our nation’”. This was, as explained by the author, a condition to the ecclesiastic hierarch stability of Paraguay “as the Church depended on the economic subside of the State, according to the patronage system that reigned at the time”. Talavera (2016, p. 60) states, based on recent testimonies of truth and justice commission, that in 1959 the same archbishop “denied exile in churches to the protesters that wanted to escape Stroessner’s repression”.

Followers of creationism, therefore, based on the religious belief that humanity, life, land, and all universe were created by a supernatural being, resulting from a divine creation, as narrated in the Sacred Bible (book of Genesis), the authors of the book Educación Cívica y Moral stated that “historically , the sacred scriptures refer us to the origin of the human race and the fact that the dispersion of families by land, thus creating different nations”. Another biblical quotation was used to affirm that “the solitude of a man with no one, no human commerce, is not natural: ‘It is not convenient for men to be alone, a similar companion to him must be made’, says the author on the nature of the begging of times” (EDUCACIÓN..., 1959[?], p. 9-10). Such statements leave no doubt on the confluence of religion and moral, the disciplinary contents in this book to form Paraguayan teenagers and youngsters, within the precepts of Christian Catholic families. Summing up, for the authors, “the family keeps and transmits the moral, religious, and cultural values in general that contribute to maintain the spirit of the nation” (EDUCACIÓN..., 1959[?], p. 17). Olmedo Jiménez (1973, p. 65), on her turn, keeps the discussion about family grounded on the civil code, but also emphasizes that family, “the cornerstone of the social building”, is organized on the base of legitimate marriage.

To the authors of Educación Cívica y Moral, different and inferior to the legitimate family, “natural family”, formed by the simple union of a man and a woman, with no legal formality, a union known as concubinage, is “a phenomenon, sadly, very frequent among us” (EDUCACIÓN..., 1959[?], p. 21). Seeking the causes of the “resistance Paraguayans have to organize a Christian place”, the authors conclude that it is a problem of “cultural order”. They explain that the expression “do not want to be tied down” or “do not lose their freedom,” reveal the “lack of knowledge on spiritual and material goods that arise from a Christian home [...] In a Christian marriage, another supernatural good is added, the grace of sacrament”. (EDUCACIÓN..., 1959[?], p. 23). When listing the consequences of “natural family” to social order, the authors make biblical quotes saying that “the Ecclesiastic, chapter 29, gives a description on the ‘misery of those with no place, but further in chapter 36, says “Where there is no hedge, the possession shall be spoiled: and where there is no wife, he mourneth that is in want. Who will trust him that hath no rest…?. (EDUCACIÓN..., 1959[?], p. 24).

Olmedo Jiménez (1973, p. 66), on her turn presents the diverse “systems of organization of marriage” as a legal institution, based on the established legislation presents the “free system” or “free union”, that is converted, after a certain period of simple union and cohabitation in “true union” with “all legal features”. However, the author also emphasizes the problems of this type of union reinforced in the legislation itself:

The doctrine, unanimously, recognizes the disastrous consequences that derive from this system to the family and the society. The authors add that the system is not recommended even to the most educated and civilized people because it favors the ungoverned passions that would guide them to a new type of barbarism. (JIMÉNEZ, 1973, p. 66).

Despite the different emphasis each book gives to religion, in both works we can see the importance of controlling social behaviors, as the formation of a “legitimate family”, grounded on Christian precepts, towards the progress of the Paraguayan nation. In the confluence of the relations between moral and civility in a Catholic country, “the civil law is no different, in its core, to the canonic dispositions”, considering that monogamous marriage and the dignity of spouses would be “principals of the legislation of civilized countries”, such as Paraguay, “a civilization born and enriched by the Christian doctrine” (EDUCACIÓN..., 1959[?], p. 20).

According to such precepts, progress would only be possible when grounded on the order established by Christian Catholic principles that established a confluence with the interests of the State, harmonious, with no fissures. The imposition of Catholic doctrine contributed to the legitimate the authority of the government, as an established dictatorship, drawing an education through social homogeneity, controlling freedom, and imposing students’ responsibilities to build the material and spiritual progress of Paraguay as a nation.

Stroessner’s dictatorship backed by Catholic moral uses, in our opinion, the discourse of positivist arsenal to create a strong government and promote the unreached progress during the democratic period. It is also worth considering that the positivist ideal of Augusto Comte aimed social regeneration, Christianity aimed the regeneration of men. Such precepts are consistent in this context. Corroborating with our conclusion, Vera (2010) explains that, with the adhesion of society to military heroes as promotors of order and progress, Paraguay became a fruitful field to establish authoritarian and repressive dictatorships.

The tripod family, civil society, and Church make up the organicity of Paraguayan nation during Stroessner’s government, having Catholicism as a unifying argument. As historiography has shown, Catholic Church legitimized the actions of dictatorial governments backing their authorities. As stated by Thomas Bernhard (2020, p. 326), in the work entitled “Extinction”, Catholicism, alongside national socialism, “is the greatest Austrian evil”, as well as “the fascism in Italy alongside Catholicism”¹⁷. We could see that this was no different in Paraguay. To the Stroessner’s dictatorship it was advantageous the obedience and subservience of the people and, for that, Catholicism was very convenient.

FINAL REMARKS

Catholicism as the official religion of Paraguay ignores the displacement of reference frameworks from religion to ethics, enacted in the 18^th century, having ethics as the place to create a theory on conducts and religious doctrine on its turn, as belief, in the sense of opinion, passion, superstition, as analyzed by Certeau (2011, p. 153) when referring to the formality of practices. We believe that the Catholic doctrine, as an official religion in Paraguay, hiding the representation of religion as a plural noun, has contributed to legitimize Stroessner’s dictatorial government in Paraguay for 35 years. This is indicated in our analysis of the textbooks, understanding them as a space of memory and a mirror of the society it produces.

There are differences between the contents of available sources, with an emphasis on the religious nature of the first book, as it was clear in the quantitative-qualitative analysis. In this work, “God’s mandate to human priests: ‘Be fruitful and multiply’ [implies] mainly, human growth, that is to say the increasing control and subjection of their instinctive tendencies by spiritual and rational forces, the most adequate and conscious use of the natural resources for the satisfaction of their needs and, through this path, reach the person’s spiritual purpose and contribute to social progress” (EDUCACIÓN, 1959[?], P. 34). However, we concluded that the second textbook analyzed does not break away from the concept of religion as a bidding element and the confluence between contents of civic and moral education and religion has left traces in its pages, which circulated since the 1973 Education Reform in Paraguayan schools.

Religious faith was used as an argumentative tool to convince Paraguayans, especially young people and teenagers targeted by the books, to keep peaceful, respecting the will of the “Almighty” that established, since immemorial times the obedience to the authority (father and government), using the Sacred Bible as a source, which holds the universal truth, superior to men’s truth. Such discourse is convenient to maintain the control of dictatorial regime, justifying the imposition of behaviors, considered appropriate to the progress of Paraguayan nation, such as “legitimate matrimony”, because family, after all, contributes to “maintain the spirit of Paraguayan nationality” expected by Stroessner.

Considering that “the method of explanation in history is essentially deductive” and that “the explanations are more evaluations than demonstrations” (LE GOFF, 2006[1977], p. 41), we infer that the confluence between civic and Catholic morality, present in the content of textbooks analyzed distanced Paraguayan school education from the objective expected by the school. Since the 19^th century the definition of school presupposes the contribution to the freedom and the autonomy of social subjects that frequent it and are formed in it. The Kantian ideal of formation conjugates “moral nobility” and “happiness”, however, Paraguayan school in the dictatorship context was more concerned in conforming than in forming, in controlling than liberating, far from overcoming the horizon of authority/ authoritarianism.

REFERÊNCIAS: - Fontes:

• EDUCACIÓN CÍVICA Y MORAL. Assunção, Paraguai: Editora Hiram, 1959.
• JIMÉNEZ, María Elina Olmedo. Nociones Generales de EducaciónCivica (4. Curso - Bachillerato Humanistico y comercial) Assunção, Paraguai: Editora Triunfo, 1973.
• PARAGUAY, Constitución de la República de Paraguay, 1967, 25 de agosto de 1967.
• PARAGUAY. Constitución de Paraguay de 1940
• PARAGUAY. Constitución de la República de Paraguay,1992.
• SEIFERHELD, David Velásquez; D`ALESSANDRO, Sandra. Relaciones entre autoritarismo y educación en el Paraguay 1869 - 2012 Un análisis histórico. Tercer Volumen 1954 - 1989. Asunción-Paraguay: Edição Serpaj, 2017.

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• 1
  English version: Viviane Ramos- [e-mail]
• 4
  According to the constitution in power, freedom of religion, worship, and ideology are recognized, with no limitations, except those established in the Constitution and the Law. There is no official religion.
• 5
  According to the World Bank data, in 1960 Paraguayan population was 1,904,000; in 1970 it was 2,475,000; in 1980 it was 3,182,000, and 4,223,000 in 1990.
• 6
  In a broader sense, when analyzing political education in Brazil and in Italy, Taborda de Oliveira and Bianchini (2017, p. 291) conclude that in the 19^th and 20^th century, school established as an objective “the moral and instrumental formation of workers” and focused on “offering students the necessary ethos to be successfully inserted in the job market”, keeping “their position/social condition”.
• 7
  Hiram may be the name of the publishing company, however, when searching for the name, nothing was found, except an allegoric figure mentioned in a Masonry ritual, in which he is the building master of King Solomon’s Castle.
• 8
  As the issue we have available is a photocopy, we could not identify if the logo of Lions Club International was a sticker or part of the book cover.
• 9
  In the prologue of this work, the author explains that her previous book, targeting the “Tercer curso del ciclo básico”, was called “Nociones Fudamentales de Organización Social”.
• 10
  The Liga Paraguaya Pro Derechos de la Mujer was responsible for the sanction and promulgation of the first law of Women Civil Rights... (Ley 236/54), as well as the law 704/61, dealing with the political rights of women in Paraguay, as explained by Bareiro, Soto, and Monte (1993).
• 11
  1957 Paraguayan Educational Reform encompassed different educational level, changing gradually throughout the years, but was given this date, due to the Decree n. 29.594, September 27, 1957.
• 12
  The term subject, in the sense of teaching subject, according to Chervel (1990), only emerged in the first decades of the 20^th century.
• 13
  The first two pages, which probably present the book Educación Cívica y Moral cannot be read, limiting comparison.
• 14
  Even though this is not legible in the cover and introduction, as previously stated.
• 15
  The citation indicates that the author followed the program of Educación Cívica y Moral during the Reforma de la Enseñanza Media. Maybe the author was referring to the 1973 Reform, published in Paraguay in the same year of the textbook.
• 16
  According to Kantian theory, the speculative reason cannot demonstrate for sure the existence of God, nor His inexistence. According to Prestes (2019), Kant “conveys the notion that morality leads to religion”, when affirming that “human beings cannot know, through intuition, the perfection of divine will, just derive it through human concepts, highlighting the concepts of morality, due to their nobility or importance”. Anyway, it is another notion of moral and religion. To Kant, the concept of “God as a supreme good” comes through the idea of a reason that is “a priori to the moral perfection” (KANT apud PRESTES, 2019, p. 45-46).
• 17
  In this literary work, the author makes other statements on the evils of Catholic religion. Acc. Bernhard (2020, p. 106 a 110; 214-215; 268; 467; ...).

APÊNDICE A

Quadro/Súmario de
Educación Cívica y Moral (1959[?])

APÊNDICE B

Quadro/Súmario de
Nociones Generales de Educación Cívica (1973)

Publication Dates

• Publication in this collection
  05 Sept 2022
• Date of issue
  2022

History

• Received
  08 Nov 2021
• Accepted
  01 Feb 2022

• This document has a preprint version
  10.1590/SciELOPreprints.3081