Fred Morris went to Brazil in 1964 as a missionary of the United Methodist Church and served for nearly five years in southern Brazil near Rio de Janeiro. He returned to the U.S. in 1968 to do graduate study in urban sociology at the University of Chicago, after which he went back to Recife in northeastern Brazil. There he organized a community center which housed a tutorial program for children and a family planning clinic (one of the few such clinics in Brazil) among Recife’s urban poor.
Through an ecumenical worship and fellowship team, Morris came into close association with Dom Helder Camara. Fred was also doing some part-time journalism for Time magazine and The Associated Press.
Wes: What were the circumstances that led to your arrest and torture in Brazil?
Fred: As a result of my involvement with Time magazine and my friendship with Dom Helder in the ecumenical work, the Brazilian army became extremely unhappy with me. Just two years ago, June 24, 1974, Time published a full page story on Dom Helder. It was very uncomplimentary of the repressive Brazilian regime and talked about how Dom Helder fights against their use of torture. The Brazilian army officials in Recife wrongly assumed that I was the author of the article. Actually I didn’t even know that it was going to be in the magazine until I bought the magazine and read it. I was called in for questioning on three different occasions, in July by Colonel Meziat, the head of intelligence in the Fourth Army of Recife. They were extremely upset about this article. They had all sorts of questions about my relationship to Dom Helder and accused me of being in all sorts of subversive activities, said that my name had been cited by a number of known subversives, though they would not say who these people were. There was no opportunity for defense.
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