This work is the result of research into a topic that is little discussed, the social role of the Catholic Church. What motivated us was the desire to show a grassroots work that is little known but of great importance to society as a whole. We would also like to pay tribute, in posthumous memory, to Father Jos? Koopmans, a pioneer in the socio-environmental struggle in the far south of Bahia, who was one of the great references in the realisation of this project.