The representation of teachers under the Catholic restoration and its consequences on the schools of German immigrants in the state of Rio Grande do Sul

Abstract

Th e representation of the teaching profession as a calling and priesthood was emphasized from the 19th century onwards by the more conservative circles in European society. It was particularly highlighted under the Restoration Movement, which frontally
opposed democratic society and the autonomy of the lay realm that had been proposed since the French Revolution. Th e article discusses how the representation of teachers under the Catholic Restoration was formed and its consequences among German schools in Brazil. Th e Restoration’s guidelines became the offi cial position of the Catholic Church in 1864 with Pope Pius IX. Th rough his encyclicals Quanta Cura and Syllabus he condemned modernity’s lay tendency and proposed a return to the principles of the Middle Ages, in
which there had supposedly been a “harmonic society” under the primacy of the spiritual realm. In such a context the representation of the teaching profession as a calling was very much stressed, and it had a strong repercussion in the schooling process. Although the Restoration’s guidelines were intended for the Catholic Church as a whole, in view of the sources the article’s analysis is restricted to the expression of its views among the schools of German immigrants in the state of Rio Grande do Sul.

Key words: teaching as a calling, sacred mission, teaching profession.