Quando a religião (des)comunica a ciência: o catolicismo brasileiro e a pandemia de Covid-19

The aim of this article is to analyze the institutional positions of Brazilian Catholicism during the pandemic of the new coronavirus, based on the idea of ​​a “political communication” of science by religion. We will take as analysis material documents from the National Conference of Bishops of Brazil (CNBB), decisions of some (arch) dioceses and, as a counterpoint, the positions of conservative Catholic movements in question to the sanitary and ecclesial recommendations. The qualitative-exploratory hypothesis of the article demonstrates that the moment of the pandemic accentuated, in terms of communicative dissonance, the lines of tension existing in the Catholic Church and, as the pandemic intensified, the institutional march of the Catholic hierarchy in a path opposite to that followed by evangelical leaders, who demonstrated more unrestricted support for measures and communication by the Brazilian government. Thus, it is guided by the following question: has there been, at this moment, an important tension between the hierarchy, committed to science, and the faithful, closer to the current political negativism? The article is based on a qualitative method, focusing on the partial review of bibliographic productions related to the theme and analytical mapping of the main official positions (editorials, speeches, notes, texts) proposed by the mentioned Catholic segments.