Centro Dom Vital

Centro Dom Vital is a historical lay Catholic cultural center based in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil.
Founded by the lawyer and journalist Jackson de Figueiredo, it shaped 20th-century Brazilian culture by bringing together important writers, artists, and philosophers, and by promoting the Church's doctrine and social teaching.
The Center's main goals were to catechize and educate laypeople, as well as to form a conservative, anti-modernist intellectual elite. Its members were fundamental in establishing the Pontifical [Catholic University of Rio de Janeiro].
It publishes the centenary journal A Ordem annually.

History

The Center was started by a group of young men led by Jackson de Figueiredo, who had been directed and encouraged by Cardinal Dom Sebastião Leme. Among the group were politicians and journalists eager to intervene in intellectual and public debate. The year of the Center's formation, 1922, coincided with major cultural and political events in Brazil, such as the holding of the Modern Art Week, the foundation of the Brazilian Communist Party, and the Copacabana Fort revolt.
Taking a contrary stance toward what they perceived as threats to Tradition and Authority, the members sought to reunite the lay public and young intellectuals in hopes of forming a Catholic militancy and a vigorous group of intellectuals capable of defending the Church's doctrine.