Arns' base divided in Brazil

Vatican-imposed changes in splitting the archdiocese of Sao Paolo are causing local disquiet as Matthew Keegan reports
THE Vatican has removed four additional dioceses from the populous Archdiocese of Sao Paulo, Brazil, causing its head Cardinal Paulo Arns, to express fears that existing pastoral programmes will be jeopardised as a result.
By creating the new dioceses the Vatican has cut the nurnbei of Cardinal Arns' immediate flock by half, from 14.6 million to 7.1 million. The remaining Catholics will be incorporated in the new areas, with Sao Paulo as the metropolitan see of the ecclesiastical province with responsibilities for oversight.
Cardinal Arns has publicly recognised the need for dividing the archdiocese, but the Vatican's plan has provoked worries for the future of the Catholic community in Sao Paulo.
In 1974 Cardinal Arns proposed to Pope Paul VI that the nine archdioeesan subregions be formed into separate dioceses, but remain connected on the basis of a joint pastoral programme coordinated by the bishops. He formally submitted this idea for official consideration in 1978, only to have it rejected.
The Vatican's explanation then was that Cardinal Arns' plans would have created nine "non-autonomous, but interdependent" dioceses, which under canon law were judged to have no juridical basis.
Cardinal Arns had argued that such interdependence is necessary because the resources of the archdiocesan rich are needed to help the poor. The Vatican reorganisation will cut off the poor areas from the wealthy ones.
The city of Sao Paulo is Brazil's bustling industrial and economic hub, where much of the country's wealth is concentrated, but its outlying areas are inhabited by extremely poor people. Cardinal Arns said that his original proposals asked for "personal and material resources in common so that the rich part of the city can help the poor part".
The current upheaval has left the local bishops upset. By splitting the archdiocese of Sao Paulo many believe they are witnessing the beginning of a long term process of weakening the power base built up by Cardinal Arns, and used by him as a platform to expound the Church's "option for the poor". ' Bishop Angelico Bernadino, the former bishop of Sao Miguel Paulista, was replaced in, the reorganisation and left without a diocese to run. He, along with other bishops, considers the Vatican plans to be a great tragedy and a considerable blow
to church unity in the archdiocese.
The Church in Sao Paulo fears the changes could also harm the archdiocesan approach of having each of the auxiliary bishops in charge of a specific pastoral programme for the whole metropolitan area, such as its work with abandoned children and housing. How easy the bishops will find it to continue their work in this new environment is yet to be seen.
The restructuring of the archdiocese comes at a time when Sao Paulo is experiencing not only religious but political change as well. Local elections brought the city under the control of the left-wing workers party, the PT, and straight into a financial crisis. The city owes £420 million and has been forced to negotiate with its creditors.