And the Church Became Black

The Mass of Quilombos

Abstract

The article examine the Missa dos Quilombos, held in the city of Recife, on November 22, 1981. The idea is to demonstrate how the liturgical celebration was reported by the Brazilian press, attracting the attention of various sectors of civil society and the clergy. Although with a single edition and banned by the Vatican, the Missa dos Quilombos gained national prominence, provoked controversy and became re-semantized over time: it lost parto f its religious meaning and was appropriated by cultural manifestations as an ecumenical symbol of black, popular and decolonial resistence.