里约热内卢——在巴西这个以天主教为主的国家里，这位守护圣徒已成为政治争议的焦点。该国的主要总统候选人正在竭尽全力争取宗教选民的支持。
RIO DE JANEIRO - Brazil’s patron saint has become a political flashpoint as the predominantly Catholic country’s leading presidential candidates make a last-ditch effort to court religious voters.
参议员弗拉维奥·博索纳罗猛烈抨击总统路易斯·伊纳西奥·卢拉·达席尔瓦，指责其散布有关博索纳罗的谣言；这一事件暴露了巴西天主教多数派与日益壮大的福音派群体之间的紧张关系。
Senator Flavio Bolsonaro has lashed out at President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva for apparently feeding rumours about his right-wing rival, with the saga exposing tensions between Brazil’s Catholic majority and its expanding evangelical population.
近日，这位左翼现任总统声称，如果博索纳罗当选，他计划剥夺阿帕雷西达圣母的守护圣徒地位。
In recent days, the leftist incumbent has referred to claims that Bolsonaro plans to strip Our Lady of Aparecida of her patron saint status if elected.
福音派在巴西发展迅速，其政治影响力日益增强，同时也是重要的右翼选民群体；但他们并不将这位圣母视为值得崇拜的对象。
Evangelicals, a booming denomination in Brazil with growing political power and an important right-wing voter base, do not recognise the saint as an object of worship.
“只要我还在担任总统……就没人敢不尊重阿帕雷西达圣母，”卢拉在9月28日的一次集会上说道。卢拉正在寻求第四次连任。
“As long as I am president... no one is going to disrespect Our Lady of Aparecida,” Lula, who is seeking a fourth nonconsecutive term, said at a rally on Sept 28.
45岁的博索纳罗在竞选活动中频繁提及宗教问题，并否认这些指控。他说：“大家都知道我尊重所有宗教！”他还指责政府在传播“虚假新闻”。
Bolsonaro, 45, has frequently invoked religion on the campaign trail, and denies the accusations. “Everyone knows that I respect religions. All of them!” he said, accusing the government of spreading “fake news.”
这场争论的爆发源于媒体报道称，天主教会的一些人士对这位被描绘成黑皮肤女性的圣母的未来地位感到担忧。此外，2007年由一位与博索纳罗立场相近的议员提出的、旨在降低这位圣母地位的法案也被重新曝光，这进一步引发了网络上的广泛猜测。
‘Oxygen to rumours’The quarrel erupted after media reports that figures in the Catholic Church were concerned about the future status of the beloved saint, who is depicted in Brazil as a black woman. The unearthing of an abandoned 2007 Bill, initially proposed by a Bolsonaro-aligned lawmaker, to demote the patron saint subsequently unleashed rampant speculation online.
英国雷丁大学比较政治学教授维克托·阿劳霍指出：“总统的这种行为实际上是在‘助长谣言的传播’。”他说：“通过主动参与宗教争议并将这些争议纳入竞选活动的主流讨论中，卢拉试图削弱博索纳罗的道德影响力，迫使对手在宗教问题上处于防御姿态。”
The president’s decision to “give oxygen to rumours” signals a sea change in how he engages with religious voters, said Victor Araujo, a comparative politics professor at the Britain’s University of Reading. “By actively engaging with religious controversies and bringing them into the mainstream campaign, Lula is trying to neutralise Bolsonaro’s moral appeal and force his rival onto the defensive on religious grounds,” Araujo told AFP.
根据 Quaest 的调查，在 9 月 27 日的民意调查中，卢拉获得了 48% 的天主教选民的支持率，而博索纳罗的支持率为 29%。
Lula currently has 48 per cent of Catholic voting intentions on Sept 27 compared with 29 per cent for Bolsonaro, according to a Quaest survey.
福音派选民的投票倾向则完全相反：46% 的福音派选民支持博索纳罗，只有 27% 的福音派选民支持卢拉。
Evangelical voting intentions go in the opposite direction, with 46 per cent for Bolsonaro and 27 per cent for Lula.
51 岁的贾娜伊娜（Janaina）是里约热内卢的一名天主教艺术教师，她坚信右翼势力将卢拉视为他们的目标。
Janaina, 51, a Catholic art teacher working in Rio de Janeiro, firmly believes that the right-wing camp has the saint in its sights.
“宗教与政治无关，”她说，并表示担忧福音派人士“希望这种新的宗教信仰得以传播……并攻击天主教会。”然而，同样在这座教堂做礼拜的安德烈·帕斯科阿尔（Andre Paschoal）并不这么认为。
“Religion has nothing to do with politics,” she said, voicing concern that Evangelicals “want this other religion to grow…and attack the Catholic Church.”Andre Paschoal, a worshipper at the same church, is less convinced.
“卢拉利用了宗教信仰来争取选民支持，但他肯定会因此失去很多选票，”这位 58 岁的公务员告诉法新社（AFP）。
“Lula took advantage of this and he will certainly lose many votes because of it,” the civil servant, 58, told AFP.
“他并没有表现出真诚的态度，而是在利用虚假的谎言来拉拢天主教徒或福音派选民，”帕斯科阿尔认为。
“Instead of being sincere, he is making use of an artificial lie to sway Catholics or Evangelicals in his favour,” Paschoal believes.
“这纯粹是政治手段，”特蕾莎·赫莱尔（Tereza Helael）在前往市中心参加福音派宗教活动时说道。
‘Pure politics’“It’s pure politics,” echoed Tereza Helael as she made her way to an evangelical service in the city centre.
“这一切都是为了针对特定的群体、特定的选民群体……只是为了获取选票而已，”这位 70 岁的艺术家解释道。
“It’s meant to target a certain area, a certain group… just to get votes,” the 70-year-old artist said.
根据皮尤研究中心（Pew Research Center）的数据，巴西是世界上基督徒人口第二多的国家（仅次于美国），其天主教徒长期以来一直占据主导地位。然而近年来，该国福音派人口的增长速度非常快。
来自福音派社区的极端保守势力曾为弗拉维奥·博索纳罗的父亲——前总统贾伊尔·博索纳罗（Jair Bolsonaro）提供过重要的政治支持；贾伊尔·博索纳罗曾因密谋政变而被判有罪。
Brazil, known for its Christ the Redeemer statue looming over Rio de Janeiro, hosts the world’s second-largest Christian population after the United States, according to the Pew Research Centre. Catholics have historically dominated that cohort, but rapid demographic changes in recent years have seen the country’s evangelical population shoot up. Ultra-conservative actors from this community have provided crucial political backing to Flavio Bolsonaro’s father, ex-president Jair Bolsonaro, who was convicted of plotting a coup.
“这场争议正是对这些教会日益激进的宗教政治活动的反应，”里约热内卢宗座天主教大学的哲学教授罗德里戈·努内斯（Rodrigo Nunes）指出。
“This controversy is a reaction to these churches’ political activity becoming ever more aggressive in recent years,” said Rodrigo Nunes, a philosophy professor at the Pontifical Catholic University of Rio de Janeiro.
然而，他说，大多数天主教徒对这一谣言感到不安，因为这质疑了他们作为巴西主导宗教的隐含地位（即他们并未公开宣称自己拥有这一地位，但实际上却享有这一事实）。来源：法新社（AFP）
However, he said, most Catholics are perturbed by the rumour “because it challenges their tacit, unspoken position as the dominant religion in Brazil.”AFP