Paulo Evaristo Arns

Paulo Evaristo Arns OFM (14 September 1921 – 14 December 2016) was a Brazilian prelate of the Catholic Church, who was made a cardinal and the Archbishop of São Paulo by Pope Paul VI, and later became cardinal protopriest.

His ministry began with a twenty-year academic career, but when charged with responsibility for the Sao Paulo Archdiocese he proved a relentless opponent of Brazil's military dictatorship and its use of torture as well as an advocate for the poor and a vocal defender of liberation theology.

In his later years he openly criticized the way Pope John Paul II governed the Catholic Church through the Roman Curia and questioned his teaching on priestly celibacy and other issues.

Paulo Steiner Arns was born as the fifth of thirteen children of the German immigrants Gabriel and Helana (née Steiner) Arns.

Three of his sisters would later become nuns and one of his brothers a Franciscan.

From 1941 to 1943 Arns studied philosophy in Curitiba and then theology from 1944 to 1947 in Petrópolis.

Then he attended the Sorbonne in Paris studying literature, Latin, Greek, Syriac at the Ecole Pratique des Hautes Etudes, and ancient history.

On 10 December 1943, Arns joined the Franciscans; he was ordained a priest on 30 November 1945.

He graduated with a doctorate in classical languages in 1946.

Arns later returned to the Sorbonne to study for a Doctor of Letters which he obtained in 1950, writing a dissertation titled "La technique du livre d'après Saint Jérome".

Arns then fulfilled a series of academic assignments in Brazil.

He taught at the seminary of Agudos in São Paulo.

He lectured as a member of the faculty of Philosophy, Science and Letters of Bauru, and had responsibilities at a number of other institutions of higher education, usually faculty positions, and became a professor at the Catholic University of Petrópolis.

Arns was elected vice-provincial of the province of the Immaculate Conception of the Friars Minor.

He was the director of the monthly review for religious Sponsa Christi.

Pope Paul VI named Arns titular bishop of Respecta and auxiliary bishop of São Paulo on 2 May 1966.

He was consecrated on 3 July 1966 by Cardinal Agnelo Rossi.

After the first meeting between Church and Freemasonry which had been held on 11 April 1969 at the convent of the Divine Master in Ariccia, he was the protagonist of a series of public handshakes between high prelates of the Roman Catholic Church and the heads of Freemasonry.

The same pope appointed him Archbishop of São Paulo on 22 October 1970 and he was installed on 1 November.

In 1973 he sold the episcopal palace, a mansion standing in its own park.

Two things horrified him: the massive electricity bills and the staff of 25 sisters and brothers assigned to look after his needs.

He used the money from the sale to build a social station in the favelas.

He remained Archbishop of São Paulo for 28 years and managed an expansion of the church's presence and outreach by creating 43 parishes and more than 1,200 community centers.

In the consistory of 5 March 1973, Pope Paul VI made him Cardinal-Priest of Sant'Antonio da Padova in Via Tuscolana.

He participated as a cardinal-elector in the two conclaves of 1978 that elected Popes John Paul I and John Paul II.

In the mid-1980s, Arns' programs for the development of priestly vocations came under fire from Vatican authorities that suspected its ties to liberation theology.

The seminarians lived in eleven small communities of seven or eight and each group was tied to a base community.

The seminaries also held secular jobs in order to provide support to their families during their priestly formation.

Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger, head of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith (CDF), appointed Cardinal Joseph Höffner of Cologne, known for his conservative positions, to conduct an investigation.

In Brazil he praised the São Paulo program, but submitted a largely negative report to the CDF.

From 1983 to 1991 he served as secretary to the Synod of Bishops, but only in 2005 did he speak publicly of his experience: "I had responsibility for recording the conclusions of one synod and drafting the documents in preparation for the next. Nothing of what we prepared was ever taken into consideration. Very competent people carried out the whole process, but the texts were never used.... The conclusions were formulated in such a way that they no longer reflected what had been said in the discussions."

In 1989, Arns sent a letter to Fidel Castro on the 30th anniversary of the Cuban Revolution.

He praised Cuba's record on social justice and wrote that "Christian faith discovers in the achievements of the revolution signs of the kingdom of God.... You are present daily in my prayers, and I ask the Father that he always concede you the grace of guiding the destinies of your country."

Political and theological conservatives, including Cardinal Eugenio Sales of Rio de Janeiro, protested what they interpreted as support for Castro's continued rule.

Leonardo Boff, the foremost figure in the liberation theology movement, defended Arns, saying: "Cuba carried out a revolution against hunger by ending prostitution, illiteracy and misery. Dom Paulo [Arns] is not a socialist, but a man of the poor and the oppressed."

Arns said the letter was part of an ongoing dialogue with Castro and that he opposed dictatorship.

He also promoted the organization of more than 2000 basic ecclesial communities.

He developed AIDS education programs and ministries for homeless children and prisoners.

With his sister Dr. Zilda, he founded Pastoral da Criança (Pastoral Care for Children), an organ for social action of the National Conference of Bishops of Brazil.

One of his sisters, Zilda Arns Neumann, a pediatrician who founded the Brazilian bishops' children's commission, was killed in the 2010 Haiti earthquake.