"A corrective to hagiographies, argues that Dom Helder Câmara's symbolic importance was inflated by critics' demonizing rhetoric and by statements he issued abroad while silenced in Brazil, 1970-77. First, the antiquated structure of the Archdiocese of Recife-Olinda (1964-69), and then the crisis of the priesthood (1970-85), limited the impact of his reforms. Recife was not much different from other dioceses in level of state repression or depth of reform"--Handbook of Latin American Studies, v. 58.