Colonialismo e Chiesa cattolica durante la dittatura di Salazar (1940-1954)

The opening of the archives of Pius XII sheds new light on a fundamental issue for the contemporary Church as the challenge posed by the decolonization and by the transformation of the missionary experience due to the decline of colonial Europe. The present article traces the role of the Church within the ideological/ political framework of the Portuguese Estado novo that turns out as particularly useful case-study to elucidate the ambiguities and contradictions of Roman Catholicism regarding the topic of colonisation. This article so analyses the consequences of the 1940 Missionary Agreement headed for consolidating the repressive Portuguese regime in the colonies as well as in the mother country as well as the testimonies of religious dissent which contributed to questioning the legitimacy of the Romano-centric missionary model. [Publisher's text].