This article investigates the signs of the South American Catholic Reaction movement in the educational policy of Minister Gustavo Capanema (1934-1945), after a repositioning of intellectuals between the Catholic bodies and state apparata, in defense of the Catholic culture in the development of the nation. In the first part, it addresses the defense councils of Catholic pedagogy; in the second, it discusses the representation of Catholic intellectuals in the state apparata, such as the articulations in the national scenario among the Catholic higher institutions; Finally, in the third part, it presents the influence of the French intellectual Jacques Maritain between the productions of the Catholic magazine A Ordem, and the repercussion of integral humanism and Christian democracy around the engagement of Catholic militancy.