Impure Catholicism: politicization and transgressions of religious boundaries

The article discusses the phenomenon of politicization of Catholic priests in Brazil. Based on elements borrowed from the political sociology, it discusses some analytical perspectives considered advantageous in the apprehension of forms of concrete existence of the Catholic institution, and of the ways of putting the religious authority into practice. The analysis of two religious itineraries, of different generations and with different types of insertion, tries to demonstrate some of the mechanisms at work in the processes of interpretation that professionals of the Church make about the truth of the institution, leading them to experience their religious engagement in terms that do not separate it from a political action