SÃO PAULO – A video with several priests and Catholic singers criticizing leftists ahead of the Oct. 6 municipal elections in Brazil became viral last week and spurred controversy among many in the South American country.

The clip begins showing a Brazilian flag, which became a symbol of former President Jair Bolsonaro over the past few years. U.S.-born Jesuit Father Edward Dougherty, a pioneer of the Charismatic Catholic Renewal in Brazil since the 1970s and the founder of a Catholic TV station, is the first person that appears on the video.

“The suffering of religious persecution by communist governments cannot fail to awaken our consciences at this dramatic time of elections,” he said.

Congressman Eros Biondini, a well-known Catholic singer who has been a member of Bolsonaro’s Liberal Party and one of the leaders of the Catholic bloc in the Chamber of Deputies, appears saying that Catholics “cannot pray to God for religious freedom and vote for candidates who support countries governed by communists who today persecute more than 360 million Christians.”

Catholic singer and songwriter Dunga says on the clip that Catholics can’t vote for candidates who support the legalization of abortion.

“Abortion is not a public health issue, it is a crime, an attack on innocent lives,” he says, in a reference to President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva. During the presidential campaign in 2022, Lula said that he was personally against abortion, but that it should be dealt with as a matter of public health.

A number of priests and especially Catholic singers then appear on the video with a similar message, regarding the legalization of drugs, the inclusion of “gender ideology” in schools’ curricula, the attacks on traditional families, and so on.

Bereia, a fact-checking agency focusing on disinformation in the digital religious sphere, published an analysis of the video on its website on Sept. 12. The article defines the contents of the clip as “misleading.”

The article begins by explaining that there’s no regulation on contents given out by voters on social media, and that’s why they became fertile ground for disinformation and fake news.

The allegation that left-wing parties want to implant religious persecution in Brazil is false, according to the agency, given that extensive research couldn’t find any evidence of such plans.

“The use of the theme of persecution of Christians by the left and the Workers’ Party in electoral campaigns is not new. It dates back to the 1989 elections. […] The imagery of the communist threat related to the Workers’ Party was used, as well as the rhetoric that it would close churches, to support [former President Fernando] Collor, who would protect them,” the article read.

Bereia also mentions Dunga’s rhetoric on abortion, arguing that “while it’s considered a crime in Brazil, abortion is also a matter of public health, that’s why it can be exceptionally performed in connection to the woman’s physical and mental health condition,” the article said. In Brazil, abortion is legal if the pregnancy puts the mother’s health in danger; if the fetus has no brain; or if the pregnancy resulted from rape.

The analysis also mentioned the “panic-monger tone” adopted by the speakers on the video to deal with themes concerning traditional family values and gender ideology.

“‘Family protection’ is a theme frequently used by conservative extremists in electoral processes, given the emotional appeal it provokes, as studies by experts show,” the article read.

The report concluded by saying that “the use of religious themes to justify political stances and persuade electors to vote for far-right candidates is done in a distorted manner, without legal or factual support.”

“Such contents aim to influence the audience with misinformation and sensationalist appeals, exploiting conservative agendas and mobilizing voters through exaggerated and alarmist arguments,” Bereia concluded.

Magali Cunha, Bereia’s chief editor, told Crux that the Catholic leaders who appear on the video are part of a faction of the Brazilian Church that has been aligned with the rightwing agenda since 2010.

“Those groups have been disseminating and attacking the idea of ‘gender ideology’ since 2012. They have been defending loosening gun control and associating the left with communism in order to produce panic over the past years,” Cunha said.

That conservative group was fundamental for Bolsonaro’s electoral victory in 2018 and keeps being politically active, she added.

One of such groups is Canção Nova (New Song), a Charismatic Catholic Renewal organization that owns a media company and is very influential in the Catholic musical industry in Brazil. Most of the singers that appear on the video are somehow connected to Canção Nova.

“In the same week that video went viral, Catholic groups denounced the questionable partnership between Canção Nova and Brasil Paralelo, a media platform notorious for its denialist and revisionist stances and for promoting far-right views,” Magali Cunha recalled.

Indeed, the Observatory of Religious Communication, an initiative of the Bishops’ Conference Justice and Peace Commission and of the Conference of Religious of Brazil issued a statement on Sept. 10 said it had recently learned about the partnership.

“Considering that Canção Nova TV is an important and powerful means of communication […] and presents itself as part of the Brazilian Catholic Community; and considering that Brasil Paralelo notoriously aligns with the ideas of the far-right, disseminates conspiracy theories […] and fake news […], the Observatory thinks that it is its duty to alert Canção Nova itself and the ecclesiastical authorities on the serious risks of such a partnership,” the statement read.

Daniel Seidel, who heads the Justice and Peace Commission, told Crux that Brasil Paralelo has been accused of incentivizing attacks on democracy and is a well-known spreader of misinformation.

“I think they [Canção Nova and Brasil Paralelo] wanted their partnership to remain ocult. We have just exposed something that has already been happening since 2022,” he said.

According to Magali Cunha, the video with fake information and the partnership between Canção Nova and Brasil Paralelo are “part of the same problem.”