PENTECOSTALISM IN THE USA, ON CONGREGACAO CRISTA NO BRASIL (CCB) ‘AND ON L. FRANCESCON The first scholarly study on Congregagao Crist no Brasil, was done by Emile Léonard and published in 1952 by PUF, Paris, as the Vol. XLV of the Telgious Steno Collection of the Bibliotéque de I’Ecole Pratique des Hautes Etudes. As a visiting professor of the S.Paulo State University, he was also, for some time before that, studying the Presbyterian Church in Brazil, and contributed an article in a Protestant review of his findings@ And from that he expanded the field of his studies in his periodical visits to Brazil, to include all the spectrum of Protestantism in this country. And that was published as a collection of essays, in the Review of Historical Studies of USP (Revista de Histéria) in between May 1951 and December 1952. ¢ Léonard’s studies are pioneer studies both for CCB and for the Protestantism in Brazil. The next person who studied CCB in a scholarly fashion was Emile Willems, a cultural anthropologist from Vanderbilt University, Nashville, Tenn. who had previously done in Brazil a study on German migrant communities and had published it as “The Assimilation of Marginal Populations in Brazil” (6 . His base in Brazil was The School of Sociology and Politics in S.Paulo, and his intent was to study what cultural changes if any, Protestant, Evangelical and Pentecostal Churches were introducing in Latin America, His field of study was Chile, where a high 15% of the total population had become Protestant, Evangelical or Pentecostal, and Brazil which has the largest R. Catholic population in the world, and by far the largest Protestant, Evangelical or Pentecostal population in Latin America His study was published in 1967.8 Willems, as Leonard before, had students and/or assistants who visited different churches and communities for observations. As his assistant, I had the privilege of visiting Pentecostal groups, and this is how I first came into contact with CCB. I recall that when he saw the 7.000 seats of their headquarter’s temple packed full on a Wednesday evening, and heard the singing of hymns accompanied by 100 instruments, under the leadership of a conductor, as they usually do in that place, he said that that music was “ majestic, as an Italian opera presentation”. Then he mentioned the Italian love for music and remarked that their popular bands, enjoyment of music in the villages, etc. and observed that somehow traditional, popular way of doing and enjoing music in the villages had found ways to be expressed in that service. There are currently a number of Roman Catholic studies, essays and books on Pentecostal churches in Brasil. The person who has written more extensively is the dominican brother, (O.P.) and Prof. Francisco Cartaxo Rolim @ who teaches at the Federal University of Rio de Janeiro, in Niterdi. By the request of the Bishop of Nova Iguagi, in early seventies, he conducted a research on the expansion of Protestants in that Diocese. The findings were published in the Official Magazine of Brazilian priests: Revista Eclesiéstica Brasileira, in the year 1973. In 1981 he wrote about the Beginnings of Pentecostalism in Brazil. Still in 1981 he published another essay about the Religion of the Poor and its announcement (A Religido do Pobre e o seu anincio.) In 1982 he published another essay called Tgrejas Pentecostais (The Pentecostal Churches) where 4 pages are dedicated to Congregagao Crist no Brasil.._ In 1985 he published his book on Pentecostalism: “Pentecostais no Brasil”, (Vozes, Petropolis) , and in 1993 he produced an essay on Pentecostalism, Military Governments and Revoliton,