Centro Dom Vital

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.^[7] 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.^[8]

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.

• 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