A Rádio Ecclesia e a relação com os poderes políticos

: do colonialismo ao regime multipartidário

Abstract

The thesis presents a history of Radio Ecclesia, a radio station founded by the Catholic Church in 1954, giving particular importance to its relationship with different political powers, from the colonial regime to the governments of Jose Eduardo dos Santos in 2017. Based on documentary sources collected in institutional and private archives based in Luanda, Lubango, Lisbon, Paris, Madrid, Rome and on a bibliographic review, the thesis begins by addressing the foundation of Catholic radio in the early 30's. It then presents a history of Radio Ecclesia's relationship with colonial, Marxist and multiparty regimes. The investigation made possible to infer that, during the period of colonialism until the multiparty regime, in Angola, Radio Ecclesia's relationship oscillated between institutional cooperation with the colonial regime (1954-1974) and the conflict with the marxist (1975-1978) and multiparty regimes (1978-2017). Based on these results, we conclude that Radio Ecclesia collaborated with the Estado Novo in maintaining the colonial regime in Angola, under the Concordat between the Holy See and the Portuguese State. On the contrary, Ecclesia maintained a conflicting relationship with the Marxist regime that did not tolerate the coexistence of a station that taught Catholic doctrine that was opposite to the communist ideology in force in the People's Republic of Angola. With the multiparty regime, the Angolan Catholic station maintained a conflictual relationship, by inserting, in its program schedule, pluralistic debate, in which opposition to political parties participated and give a voice to populations that denounced acts of corruption committed by institutions of State. For this reason, the Ministry of Social Communication blocked the project of national expansion of broadcasts, after accusing Ecclesia of practicing “radio terrorism”. The conflict between Radio Ecclesia and the Angolan government, resolved with direct intervention of President Joao Lourenco in January 2018, suggested and encouraged the Angolan episcopate to undertake an effort aimed at the regularization and normalization of diplomatic relations between the Republic of Angola and the Vatican, by signing, on 21 October 2019, a Framework Agreement that defines the criteria for the use of the media by the Catholic Church.

Date of Award	30 Jun 2023
Original language	Portuguese
Awarding Institution	Universidade Católica Portuguesa
Supervisor	Nelson Ribeiro (Supervisor)