AMONG TEARS AND VOWS, VICTORY AGAINST THE “INFERNAL EMPIRE”

MARIAN DEVOTION AND 2022 PRESIDENTIAL ELECTIONS

Abstract

The Marian figure and devotions are, in Catholicism, absolutely central. From Jewish mother to queen of heaven and earth, the Virgin Mary is a symbolic kaleidoscope. However, at certain historical moments, her image takes on extreme political contours. There is a liberating virgin, a charismatic and popular virgin or a politically reactionary virgin. In this sense, the question of this article is guided: how a certain Marian devotion - Our Lady of Tears - was insistently mobilized by charismatic reactionary Catholics during the 2022 presidential elections to legitimize their opposition to one of the candidacies and position themselves on the political spectrum ? As a qualitative hypothesis, we argue that there is an elective affinity between the social affections of frustration and resentment experienced among the charismatics and the image of the tearful but sovereign virgin, who would command, in their belief, the “armies” to “crush the serpent of the great imaginary enemy”, that is, “communism” whose representative would be “PTism” or the “left”. As a methodology, we chose a qualitative approach, with a partial bibliographical review and analysis of images and texts that circulated among politicians and charismatic leaders on their social networks.