Justice Flávio Dino of Brazil's Supreme Court (STF) ordered on Wednesday (Sept. 30) the opening of a Federal Police inquiry into what he called an "apparent wave of attacks in recent months against religious images". In the same decision, he asked the Attorney General's Office (PGR) to assess whether a broader proceeding should be opened. The reports came from eight cities and involve Catholic churches, shops and Afro-Brazilian temples known as terreiros.

The order lands in the final stretch of the presidential race, as the dispute over posts about Nossa Senhora Aparecida, Brazil's patron saint, reached the Superior Electoral Court (TSE), the country's top electoral tribunal. According to G1, the controversy began after posts circulated on social media linking presidential candidate and Senator Flávio Bolsonaro (PL) and right-wing groups to a supposed plan to strip the saint of her title as patroness of Brazil. Bolsonaro denies that any such proposal exists and has accused the CNBB, the national conference of Catholic bishops, of involvement in disinformation.

How the case got here

TSE Justice André Mendonça had ordered social networks to remove those posts. On Sunday (Sept. 27), Dino suspended that order at the STF and allowed the publications. On Monday (Sept. 28), Justice Luiz Fux, ruling on an appeal, reversed Dino and restored the removal order. On Wednesday, the TSE began judging the case, and Mendonça repeated his vote to take the content down, calling claims that he was restricting religious freedom "irresponsible", according to Folha de S.Paulo.

Dino justified the inquiry by citing the approach of October 12, the feast day of the patron saint. He said his Sunday decision had aimed to "preserve religious freedom especially in favor of those taking part in the devotion to Nossa Senhora Aparecida" and wrote in the ruling:

"Reports from various parts of Brazil have reached my office, through several channels, showing an apparent wave of attacks in recent months against religious images."

The reported cases

According to G1, the justice's filing lists episodes reported in Salvador and Santo Amaro, both in Bahia state, Londrina (Parana), Rio Grande (Rio Grande do Sul), Maceio (Alagoas), Belo Horizonte (Minas Gerais), Cuiaba (Mato Grosso) and Novo Progresso (Para). They include:

• vandalism and the destruction of a religious statue at a parish in Salvador;
• statues of saints destroyed at a shop in Londrina;
• sacred images destroyed inside the Sao Pedro Cathedral in Rio Grande;
• vandalism against an image of Our Lady in the Jatiuca neighborhood of Maceio;
• vandalism at an umbanda temple in greater Belo Horizonte;
• a man who broke an image of Nossa Senhora Aparecida with an axe in a chapel in Mato Grosso, saying he acted "on the orders of spirits";
• a complaint by an umbanda priestess against a pastor accused of destroying an Exu shrine at a temple in Bahia;
• an image of Nossa Senhora Aparecida burned and destroyed beside highway BR-163, in Novo Progresso.

One of the reports, about an image of the saint in Cuiaba found broken by the local archdiocese on Friday (Sept. 25), was forwarded to Dino's office by the court's most senior justice, Gilmar Mendes, according to Folha. The list also includes attacks on images revered in religions of African origin. In the Bahia temple episode, the pastor named is the subject of a complaint, and any responsibility still has to be established by the Federal Police.

The TSE trial was underway when the inquiry was made public, with no date set for a final ruling. The next steps belong to the Federal Police, which must open the investigation, and to the PGR, which will decide on a broader proceeding. The dispute remains at the center of the campaign less than a week before the first round of the presidential election, set for October 4.