CLIMBING THE HILL OF THE CONVENT: SPIRITUALITY AND SPECTACULAR MEDIA DISCOURSE OF THE PRIESTS AT THE FESTA DA PENHA

Abstract

The Festa da Penha takes place in the Metropolitan Region of Vitória, in the state of Espírito Santo. During the event, several masses are held that attract crowds of faithful, and each of these people expresses a specific spirituality. In addition to being in person, the masses are also broadcast online and on local and national television, a fact that contributes to the spectacularization of the discourse. In theory, media discourses are directly linked to a spirituality that leads to the transcendent; however, constructive techniques and the need to persuade the faithful lead to a theatricalization of the content by the priests. Therefore, since it is assumed that people who watch the broadcasts of Catholic masses seek a spirituality that needs to be developed, it is necessary to understand to what extent the spectacular discourse of the priests of the Archdiocese of Vitória, using media language, favors the transmission of spirituality. The research will be bibliographical and will include the collection of audiovisual data from the masses of the Feasts of Our Lady of Penha in the years 2018, 2019 and 2020. The result of all this is that the spectacular language functions as a communication system loaded with knowledge that directly interferes in the construction of the Catholic spirituality of the receiver, which is why the spectacle ends up signifying spirituality, that is, it transforms into visible what is not seen, and thus the language also ends up being impacted.