The expression 'democratic crusade', used by the military in 1964, demonstrates ideological roots in Catholicism and in North American anti-communist speech. Studying the reasoning of this use in the tradition of Brazilian Catholicism allows glimpsing the way ultramontanism - the antiliberal project of the Roman Catholic papacy since the beginning of the nineteenth century - manifested itself in Brazilian politics from 1889 to 1964.
democratic crusade; ultramontanism; catholic activism