Episcopal Conference of Brazil

In defensive campaign appearances, Bolsonaro brandished images of the Virgin Mary.

accusing President Lula's campaign and figures within the National Conference of Bishops of Brazil of deliberately disseminating misinformation to alienate Catholic voters on the eve of the vote.

President Lula and his supporters seized upon the controversy to reinforce their standing among Brazil's substantial Catholic population.

At campaign rallies across northeastern Brazil and Belém, Lula ostentatiously carried statues and images of the Virgin Mary, declaring that Our Lady of Aparecida would remain the patron saint of the country as long as he remains in office.

And then on top of that, they call up Elon Musk and they get him to block this Bishops of Brazil account? What? As Trump finds influencers to manipulate the Brazilian election, he's getting help in his quest from Elon Musk, who's blocking critiques of the Bolsonaro-Trump alliance.

This week, the National Conference of Bishops of Brazil lost access to its Twitter account.

Now, how effective that is in reaching the message out to Brazilians and how important that endorsement actually would have been, I'm sure are things that we can question.

Polling shows that Catholics, 57% of all Brazilians, which is a lot less than the United States, by the way, consistently support Lula.

Yesterday, Brazilian First Lady Mrs. Lula took to Instagram to post a photo of Lula holding up an image of the saint with the message, Nossa Senhora Apresida, patron saint of Brazil, look over us.

So does he want to remove her, or does he want her to look over them? A controversy swirled around defending her.

The National Conference of Bishops of Brazil's ex-account was suddenly shut down.

What a shock! The Communications Office of the National Conference of Bishops of Brazil reports that it's experiencing difficulties accessing the institution's official account on the Twitter platform.