What to Know About the Viral Claim About Brazil’s Patron Saint Jolting a Tight Presidential Race
The court is deciding whether to keep takedown orders on posts tied to a viral claim that could sway Catholic voters in a tight race.
- On September 25, 2026, Supreme Court Justice André Mendonça ordered the removal of social media posts falsely claiming Senator Flávio Bolsonaro intended to strip Our Lady of Aparecida of her patron status, deeming them "notoriously untrue."
- The false rumor stemmed from an unearthed 2007 bill and an August video where Bolsonaro vowed to declare "Brazil belongs to the Lord Jesus Christ," which some Catholics interpreted as signaling intent to remove the patron saint.
- Justice Flávio Dino overturned Mendonça's order on September 28, citing insufficient "certainty of illegality" to restrict freedom of expression; Justice Luiz Fux then reversed Dino's decision, creating judicial conflict ahead of October 4.
- Religion has become central to the campaign, with polls showing President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva leading among Catholics while Bolsonaro commands Evangelical support , underscoring the controversy's electoral impact.
- The Supreme Court will convene a full-court session to review the conflicting rulings, with the date to be set by Justice Edson Fachin, as the election enters its final stretch before an October 25 potential runoff.
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154 Articles
On Sunday, October 4, Brazil will elect president and vice president, as well as governors, senators and deputies.
A false religious proposal attributed to Flávio Bolsonaro has favored Lula's campaign a few days before the first round scheduled for this Sunday.
Faith, rhetoric and the ballot box: How religion has shaped Brazil’s current presidential election
In the last few days before the 2026 elections, Flávio Bolsonaro and Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva — Brazil’s two leading presidential candidates — were embroiled in controversies centered on the same issue: religion. On Aug. 23, during a debate in one of Brazil’s main TV networks, Flávio Bolsonaro, son of jailed former president Jair Bolsonaro, released a video promising that one of his first acts, if elected, would be to declare that “Brazil belon…
Analysis by Iuri Pitta If there was still any doubt or hope that the Brazilian electorate would have a last chance to evaluate the presidential candidates for the next four years in a debate between them, a sequence of individual judicial decisions, with questionable arguments and subject to challenge, cast everything on the ground.
Catholics and Evangelicals do not vote in bloc: religion, class and skin color also mark the vote in the South American country.
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