Brazil’s patron saint becomes an election issue and a court dispute
Ahead of Brazil's Oct. 4 election, the Superior Electoral Court began voting on orders to remove posts suggesting Flávio Bolsonaro wants to strip Our Lady of Aparecida of her title as national patron saint, despite no record of him proposing this. Justice André Mendonça backed the removal orders, while Justice Flávio Dino separately ordered a police investigation into attacks on religious images and, in the underlying case, overturned the takedown orders himself before another justice, Luiz Fux, reinstated them.
The dispute traces to a 2007 bill, later shelved, proposing to redesignate the saint as patron of Brazilian Catholics rather than of Brazil generally, plus Bolsonaro's August remark about decreeing the country belongs to Jesus Christ. A comedian's post accusing his family of attacking the saint drew a legal challenge from the Bolsonaro campaign, which says over 2,000 related posts totaled 21 million views.
President Lula, at a rally, vowed the saint would remain patron as long as he's president and said anyone unhappy with that should leave Brazil. Legal experts note the case turns on a fine line between political criticism and disinformation, with one calling it a textbook Streisand effect.
The full dispatch is available from the source below.