The negotiations for the Concordat and the Missionary Agreement of 1940

Abstract

The idea of a concordat between Portugal and the Holy See began to circulate as early as 1929, albeit with reservations on the part of some sectors of the military dictatorship. It was not until 1937, when Salazar was minister for Foreign Affairs, that the negotiations began in Lisbon, with the participation of the papal nuncio, Monsignor Ciriacci, and Mário de Figueiredo, who presided over the work group set up for the purpose by Salazar. The first version delivered by cardinal Cerejeira to Salazar was to be followed by many more until a final version was accepted. The main issues discussed were those of the recognition of the Church by the State and of the Portuguese Catholic Action (which ended up not being included in the Concordat), the question of the assets of which the Church had been divested in 1910 and that of marriage and divorce. The difference of opinion in relation to the «secret marriages» at one point threatened to frustrate the negotiations. The signing of this «concordat of separation» and of the Missionary Agreement saw the resolution of the religious question that had been left unanswered for more than a century. The Church's claims for freedom of action were satisfied and the spectre of a political organisation of catholics fighting for it was withdrawn from the national political stage. Moreover, the religious phenomenon was used as a stabilising element in society and the nation was reintegrated in the historic line of its moral traditions. The Missionary Agreement allowed for the nationalisation of the missionary work, integrating it into the wider framework of the nationalisation of the colonial operations.