Eduardo Campos Lima

Eduardo Campos Lima is an author at Religion News Service.

All Stories by Eduardo Campos Lima

In crime-stricken Haiti, Catholic priests and nuns are targeted as kidnap victims

By Eduardo Campos Lima — April 1, 2024
SÃO PAULO, Brazil — Kidnappings by criminal gangs have continued to terrorize the country's residents, not least Catholic priests and other missionaries. In 2024 alone, at least 14 priests and religious brothers and sisters were abducted.

Brazilian evangelical Christians disrupt pre-Lenten partying with ‘Gospel Carnival’

By Eduardo Campos Lima — February 19, 2024
SÃO PAOLO (RNS) — Once content to avoid Carnival's excesses, evangelicals, who make up about 30% of Brazil's population, have a new strategy, working to short-circuit the festival with displays of Christian faith.

In South America’s ‘Lithium Triangle,’ Indigenous people defend sacred sites

By Eduardo Campos Lima — January 18, 2024
(RNS) — The Indigenous population sees lithium extraction as a disruption of their ancient relationship with the mountains that surround their homes, which they hold as sacred.

Argentina’s new president takes spiritual pilgrimage toward radical political change

By Eduardo Campos Lima — November 29, 2023
(RNS) — The country’s president-elect, who overcame the opposition of the Catholic left, talks of converting to Judaism as he awaits his inauguration. But political observers say the country’s economic crisis will soon make him too busy to dally with religious questions, personal or public.

Muslim missionaries accused of trafficking Amazon Indigenous boys to Turkey

By Eduardo Campos Lima — August 1, 2023
SÃO PAULO (RNS) — The case has caused outrage. Muslims have criticized the media’s rapt coverage as Islamophobic, given that the alleged operation was not very different from what many Christian churches have been doing for decades.

Christians represented significant faction of capital rioters in Brazil

By Eduardo Campos Lima — January 17, 2023
SÃO PAULO (RNS) — At least four evangelical pastors were among those arrested in the aftermath of the attack.

As their World Cup team advances, Argentines call on folk saints for help

By Eduardo Campos Lima — December 9, 2022
SÃO PAULO, Brazil (RNS) — One expert said that while official Catholic saints tend to be invoked in church, ‘folk saints tend to be more visible in public spaces, including soccer fields.’

Presidential standoff becomes a holy war in Brazil

By Eduardo Campos Lima — October 28, 2022
(RNS) — A runoff election in Latin America's largest country increasingly includes the religious culture-war tactics employed in US politics.

Padim Ciço, Brazil’s greatest folk saint, to be beatified

By Eduardo Campos Lima — September 7, 2022
SAO PAULO (RNS) — Almost 90 years after his death, the once excommunicated priest may officially become a saint.

Brazil’s Catholic bishops raise their voices against mining on Indigenous land

By Eduardo Campos Lima — May 16, 2022
SAO PAULO (RNS) — The damage from mining projects goes beyond deforestation, the bishops say. The effects include death from disease and higher rates of murder and sexual assault.

Bolsonaro’s education minister accused of doing bidding of Brazilian evangelicals

By Eduardo Campos Lima — March 25, 2022
(RNS) — While the evangelical bloc in the legislature is not calling for Ribeiro's dismissal, the scandal may cost Bolsonaro and his allies in fall elections.

André Mendonça, President Bolsonaro’s ‘terribly evangelical’ Supreme Court justice

By Eduardo Campos Lima — July 22, 2021
SÃO PAULO (RNS) — Mendonça’s nomination has been seen by many as a political maneuver by Bolsonaro to strengthen his ties with evangelicals, a significant and loyal voting bloc for him.

Maradona’s death boosts ‘Hand of God’ goal’s author to sainted status

By Eduardo Campos Lima — November 27, 2020
(RNS) — At its extreme, veneration of the soccer star gave birth to the Maradonian Church, a group of fans who pay homage to him with parody rituals.

Missionaries gain access to Amazon’s Indigenous peoples, despite pandemic

By Eduardo Campos Lima — August 13, 2020
SAO PAULO (RNS) — Indigenous rights groups now worry that the new law will prompt missionaries to enter their reservations, and spread coronavirus.

In Brazil, historic black lay Catholic ‘brotherhoods’ fight to survive

By Eduardo Campos Lima — December 6, 2019
(RNS) — After centuries resisting slavery, racism and inequality, dozens of black Catholic lay associations are hopeful that a new network and changes in the Church will extend their history.
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