Arns, Paulo Everisto

Arns, Paulo Everisto,

1921–2016, Brazilian Roman Catholic cardinal and social activist. He joined the Franciscans in 1943, was ordained in 1945, and studied at the Sorbonne (Ph.D. 1946). After teaching at the Catholic Univ. of Petrópolis, Brazil, he was appointed auxiliary bishop (1966–70) and then archbishop (1970–98) of São Paulo by Pope Paul VI. In 1973 he was made cardinal; that year he sold the episcopal palace and moved into a monastery, using the profits from the sale for projects to help the poor. "Dom Paulo," an advocate of liberation theologyliberation theology,
belief that the Christian Gospel demands "a preferential option for the poor," and that the church should be involved in the struggle for economic and political justice in the contemporary world—particularly in the Third World.
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, which argues that the Gospel requires support for social and political justice, strongly opposed the military regime in Brazil (1964–85) and was a prominent voice for democracy in Latin America. Arns helped document the military government's use of political persecution and torture; compiled secretly, the information was eventually published as Nunca Mais (1985, tr. Torture in Brazil, 1986, rev. ed. 1998).