Priests, in order to become mayors, had to be viewed as lovers. So, the mayor-priest is a ‘lover’ in multiple senses. He has to embody God’s love. He has to perform paternal love. He has to signal to society that he is also, very likely – albeit in secret – to be a good sexual lover as well.
Currently, for most Brazilians, Christian commensality is an almost impractical challenge: there is no bread or wine, no communion. As Christians, we have a responsibility to ask ourselves what it means to share Christ’s table in this context, even though we still have a long way to go.
If evil is the privation or perversion of a good, the real evil in the old-new Brazilian meaning of “corruption” is the dereliction of the divine goodness in the human neighbor and the nonfeasance neglect of God’s living presence amid the oppressed.
