New Brazilian cardinal shuns being another ‘loudmouth’ in a divided age

SÃO PAULO – Named a new Prince of the Church as part of crop of new cardinals announced by Pope Francis Oct. 6, observers say that Archbishop Jaime Spengler of Porto Alegre, Brazil, is an exemplar of a new breed of Latin American leaders during an era of crisis and deep social divisions.

A Franciscan, Spengler has been a bishop in Porto Alegre – the capital of Rio Grande do Sul, with 1.4 million residents – since 2011, when he became an auxiliary bishop. Two years later, he became the city’s archbishop. He joined the Ordained Ministries and Consecrated Life Pastoral Commission of the bishops’ conference, and became its president in 2015.

In 2019, Spengler was elected as a Vice President of the Bishops’ Conference (known as CNBB) and in 2023 he became its president. Shortly later, he was elected to head the Episcopal Conference of Latin American (Celam). The last time that the CNBB’s president was also Celam’s head was in the 1970s, when the legendary Cardinal Aloísio Lorscheider occupied both offices.

“That means he’s a skillful politician. The Church of the Spanish-speaking countries in Latin America is completely different from the Brazilian one,” said Francisco Borba Ribeiro Neto, formerly the head of the São Paulo Pontifical Catholic University’s Faith and Culture Center, in comments to Crux.

Spengler’s political abilities apparently led some in the Church to imagine that he might move to the Archdiocese of São Paulo, the largest in Brazil and one of the most important in the Catholic world.

Only a couple of days after his nomination was announced, Cardinal Odilo Scherer, the Archbishop of São Paulo, released a statement saying he had presented his resignation to Pope Francis in September, after his 75th birthday, and that he was asked by the pontiff to remain in office for two additional years.

The coincidence suggests that Spengler’s creation as a cardinal could be part of the succession process in São Paulo, effectively forecasting where he may end up.

No matter what the future may hold, however, right now Spengler faces an increasingly divided and acrimonious situation, in his own country and all across Latin America.

“Right-wing conservatism has become a strong social force in the region, one with the same power of left-wing progressivism. Over the past few years, there has always been the risk of a mismatch between the Church’s leaders and the overall mentality of the people,” Ribeiro Neto said.

In Brazil, a new right-wing emerged in recent years under former President Jair Bolsonaro. His defeat by President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva in 2022 didn’t mean that the Bolsonarism is over. In fact, it remains a very powerful political segment, while the left-wing has been struggling to regain influence.

“In such a context, no political group has a clear hegemony. The bishops have to be very cautious in order to avoid saying things that may identify them as members of this or that segment,” Ribeiro Neto said.

Spengler has been artfully prudent as a prelate, especially since he began to occupy high offices in CNBB. He rarely concedes interviews, and his statements tend to be vague when it comes to political issues and social divides.

In moments which, for others, demand a clear stance, he has preferred discretion. That was the case earlier this year, on March 31-April 1st, when Brazilians commemorated the 60th anniversary of the 1964 coup d’état that led to a 21-year-long military dictatorship.

CNBB failed to release any statement regarding the period, in which hundreds of political dissidents were killed by the regime and thousands were imprisoned or had to leave the country. Spengler also didn’t say anything personally about it.

Bolsonaro built his career and became a famous politician by defending the military regime, and even declared once that many more people should have been killed, making the legacy of that period highly topical in Brazil today.

“Many say in moments like that that the Church should have a more prophetic voice. But it’s not so simple. At times, those critics don’t have anything to lose. The bishops must keep the Church active and united,” said Korean-born lay theologian Jung Mo Sung, formerly a Religious Studies professor at the Methodist University of São Paulo.

Sung said that the current rifts in Latin American societies – countries such as Argentina and Colombia have been terribly divided over politics – will last for a long time.

“Those divisions create very difficult problems for the ones in charge of administering the Church,” he said.

At the same time, the Latin American Church has lost well-known leaders with clear political profiles it used to have in the past, such as Archbishop Helder Câmara (1909-1999) in Brazil and Saint Óscar Romero (1917-1980) in El Salvador.

“Those were Catholic leaders who had charisma and sainthood. Their social respectability was so great that they were able to talk with tranquility during times of conflict and call both parties to reason and dialogue,” Sung said.

In the absence of such figures, a model of discretion seems to prevail – especially when it comes to public statements – with a focus instead on good management. According to Ribeiro Neto, Celam is currently undergoing a deep process of renovation, with the intent of building a unifying project for the Spanish-speaking Latin American Church.

“That Church is only now realizing the shock of the Evangelical expansion, which had already advanced in Brazil. It also understood the power of social media during the COVID-19 pandemic, and thus it has been organizing several on-line activities for the whole Latin American people,” he said.

Observers say that Spengler’s leadership so far has avoided potential competition between Spanish-speaking leaders – less by taking charge himself, and more by allowing the process to unfold organically, according to Ribeiro Neto.

During a press conference after one of the sessions of the Synod of Bishops in Rome last week, Spengler, who declined a request to be interviewed for this article, jokingly mentioned that he’s afraid of the press. In the opinion of Sung, his stance is apparently the right one in the face of the current polarized landscape.

“It’s not the time to be a loudmouth,” he said.