Centro Dom Vital (English: Dom Vital Center, CDV) is a historical lay Catholic cultural center based in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil.
Founded by the lawyer and journalist Jackson de Figueiredo, the Center brought together writers, artists, and philosophers, and advocated the Church's doctrine and social teaching.
Its primary objectives were to catechize and educate laypeople, as well as to form a conservative, anti-modernist intellectual elite. Its members were instrumental in the founding and consolidation of the Pontifical Catholic University of Rio de Janeiro.
It publishes the centenary journal A Ordem (pt) annually.
History The Center was started by a group of young men led by Jackson de Figueiredo, who had been directed and encouraged by Cardinal Dom Sebastião Leme. Among the group were politicians and journalists eager to intervene in intellectual and public debate. The year of the Center's formation, 1922, coincided with major historic developments in Brazil, such as the holding of the Modern Art Week, the foundation of the Brazilian Communist Party, and the Copacabana Fort revolt.
Taking a contrary stance toward what they perceived as threats to Tradition and Authority, the members sought to reunite the lay public and young intellectuals in hopes of forming a Catholic militancy and a vigorous group of intellectuals capable of defending the Church's doctrine.
Notable members and associated people
Jorge de Lima, poet Octavio de Faria, novelist Cornelio Penna, novelist and pioneer of psychological realism in Brazil Murilo Mendes, surrealist poet Ismael Nery, painter Sobral Pinto, lawyer and human rights activist Gustavo Corção, writer and Catholic apologist Vinicius de Moraes, poet, singer and a key-figure in Bossa Nova music Oswaldo Aranha, UN diplomat José Pedro Galvão de Sousa, philosopher Maurílio Penido, philosopher Guerreiro Ramos, sociologist
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