The Catholic Church rejects Caiado and signals support for Eliton.

Goiás 247 - The Catholic Church is giving more than evident signs that it rejects Senator Ronaldo Caiado (DEM) and that it will work against his election. At the main mass of the Muquém pilgrimage, held last Wednesday with the presence of the gubernatorial candidates, the bishop of the Diocese of Uruaçu, Dom Messias do Reis Silveira, gave another indication in this direction by defending the re-election of "good managers" - a more than direct reference to Governor José Eliton (PSDB).

The church rejects Caiado because of the ruralist's history of close ties to radical movements, notably the Rural Democratic Union (UDR), which he founded and which, in the not-so-distant past, was allegedly responsible for acts of violence against small farmers.

Caiado represents the antithesis of the struggle, ideas, and figures of much-loved representatives of the Catholic Church, such as the late Dom Tomás Balduíno, Bishop Emeritus of the Diocese of Goiás, one of the founders of the Pastoral Land Commission; and Dom Pedro Casaldáliga, the bishop of the people, from São Félix do Araguaia.

Caiado is the living embodiment of violence and coronelismo (a system of political and social control by powerful landowners), an indelible mark of his family; he represents the opposite of everything the Catholic Church preaches in the dioceses of the interior: tolerance, compassion, serenity; expressions used in the homily in Muquém by Bishop Dom Messias, of the diocese of Uruaçu.

It is no coincidence that the entire high clergy recently gathered for a cheerful get-together with Zé Eliton at the Palácio das Esmeraldas, because the governor's reelection, defended by the bishop of Uruaçu, is the Christian trench against Caiado and all the bad things he symbolizes.

Another reason for the Catholic Church's rejection of Caiado is his excessive closeness to evangelicals. The senator's alternate is Luiz Carlos do Carmo, brother of Pastor Oídes do Carmo, one of the most influential representatives of the Assembly of God in Brazil. Caiado even sounded out Oídes about being his running mate and dedicated a significant part of his public agenda in recent months to participating in religious services, which bothered the Catholic leadership.