Abstract
The author succinctly discusses the experience of a black Brazilian group, the Agentes de Pastoral Negros, attached to the Catholic Church and ideologically inspired by Liberation Theology. She sheds light on difficulties black Catholics meet with in affirming their presence in an institution resistant to change, although claiming to be close to the poor and oppressed. The author only deals here with certain aspects of a question which has been investigated over three years of research taking an anthropological approach, which has been the object of her doctoral thesis.