Reverend Louis Colonnese was one of the most influential American ecumenical leaders to work on the campaign against the dictatorship. Colonnese visited the pope in 1969 and presented him with a document about Brazil, following which the Holy See received additional information that Brazilian religious leaders were being unlawfully imprisoned, tortured, and murdered. As director of the organization’s Latin America Bureau, Colonnese directed the International Affairs Committee of the USCC to a declaration on Brazil linking Father Henrique Perieira Neto’s murder to the widespread repression and violence against the Brazilian Catholic Church and its leaders under the military regime. The statement urged international organizations like the United Nations and the Organization of American States (OAS) to investigate the situation in Brazil and, if the charges of terror were corroborated, called for an end to U.S assistance to the Brazilian government.