United States Catholic Conference research collection (MS.2014.005)

The collection consists primarily of memos, press releases, correspondence, conference materials, and reports produced from 1969-1974 by the United States Catholic Conference Division on Latin America (USCC), an official assembly made up of lay Catholics and clergy, established to promote the Catholic Church and its ideology through culturally specific programs. It also contains U.S. State Department communications in the form of memos, airgrams, and telegrams about the relationship between the Catholic Church and the Brazilian State from 1967-1973. These materials mention prominent figures in the Latin American Church: Cardinal Eugênio de Araújo Sales (1920-2002), Bishop Jorge Marcos de Oliveira (1915-1989) and Archbishop Hélder Pessoa Câmara (1909-1999). Other significant materials include articles written by and about the National Catholic News Service, various academic publications on Latin America, the 1982 testimony of J. Bryan Hehir for the United States Catholic Conference before the House Subcommittee on Human Rights and International Organizations, and Latin America Calls! a newspaper published by the USCC, which runs from November 1964 to May 1971, volumes 2-8.