The trajectory of the Roman Catholic Apostolic Church--ICAR is intertwined with the national history of the former Portuguese colonies between the fifteenth and twentieth centuries, as well as with the constitution of the new independent States, public education and local politics. Nevertheless, various expressions of Catholicism and the construction of different Catholic identities stand out in the Lusophone world. From historical, documentary and field research in Brazilian public schools, the problem of Catholic identity in the contemporary context has been identified as running through the political and educational systems of countries that signed with the Vatican or International Concordat, such as Brazil and Cape Vbrde at the beginning of the twenty-first century. Many questions are raised by the implementation of this international agreement (Vatican--Brazil--Cape Verde), among them the obligation of religious education in schools of basic education and the ongoing debate about secularism.