Abstract
Since the mid-60s the Chilean Catholic Church has had to adjust its pastoral strategies to three very different political regimes — reformist Christian Democratic (1964-70), Democratic Socialist (1970-3), and authoritarian military (1973—). While there has been a major attempt by the hierarchy to promote an ‘evangelical-pastoral’ strategy of Church influence in society since the last years of the Christian Democratic era (from 1968 on), others have continued to characterise the Church by including traces of a‘neo-Christendom’ approach and an emerging ‘liberation theology’ model.1 These contrasting models for Church action in society are a reflection both of the socio-political challenges to the Chilean Church in a rapidly changing society and the varying interpretations of those challenges made at different levels inside the Church. In this chapter I shall examine how Church leaders have interpreted the political context in each of the three eras in Chile since the early 1960s, what adaptive strategies they have taken in each period, and what the consequences of such strategies have been both for society and the Church itself.
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NOTES
The ‘evangelical-pastoral’ strategy of Church action in society (pro-minent in the Final Document at Puebla and in the majority of pastoral letters of episcopal conferences in contemporary Latin America) stresses the promotion of religious unity within the Church, the building of effective small base Christian communities (comunida-des eclesiales de base —? CEBs) for prayer, catechesis, bible study, and sacramental worship, and the non-involvement of the official Church in party politics while supporting social justice through the words of clergy and personal action choices of laity in the secular world. The neo-Christian model (prevalent among clergy and laity formed in Catholic Action circles from the 1930s through to the mid-1960s and closely associated with the formation of Christian Demo-cratic parties) has emphasised the training of cadres of committed Catholic laity (primarily in the middle classes) to apply the Church’s social teaching in reformist politics and economics, and also has stressed the use of the institutional resources of the Church (money, personnel, buildings) by clergy and laity to carry out direct social action services on behalf of the poor. The ‘liberation theology’ approach (characteristic of many leaders and participants in the new base communities (CEBs) of the Church in Central and South America) focuses on the need for the Church to place its moral influence officially behind contemporary political liberation move-ments among the poor, and for groups of Christians to reflect and act on the social implications of their biblical faith by also supporting such movements. The best description and analysis of these and other relevant models of Church strategy has been done by Daniel H. Levine, building on the work of Ivan Vallier and Thomas G. Sanders. See Levine’s, Religion and Politics in Latin America: The Catholic Church in Venezuela and Colombi? (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1981) pp. 131–41, 304–12.
This ‘Christendom’ strategy was based on the assumption that Chile was a ‘Christian’ society (since 90 per cent of the population were baptised Catholics), and that the most influential political structures of the time (the State and the Conservative Party) and social groups (the landed interests) would both support the institutional Church and make sure that Christian policies dominated the rest of society. For a further description of this traditional model of Church-society relations in Latin America, see Levine, Religion and Politics in Latin Americ?, p. 305 and Ivan Vallier, Catholicism, Social Control and Modernization in Latin Americ? (Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice-Hall, 1970) pp. 71–2, 74.
For a description of these negotiations and the resulting terms of separation (mutually acceptable to both Church and State), see my The Church and Politics in Chile: Challenges to Modern Catholicis? (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1982) pp. 70–81.
Conferencia Episcopal de Chile, ‘La iglesia y el campesinado chileno’, Mensaj? (Santiago) 11 (May 1962) 185–94A; ‘El deber social y político en la hora presente’, Mensaj? 11 (November 1962) 577–87.
Smith, The Church and Politics in Chil?, pp. 111–15.
Ibid., Table 5.2, p. 108.
The ingredients of this ‘evangelical-pastoral’ strategy are found in the following documents of the episcopal conference: ‘Chile, voluntad de ser’, Mensaje 1? (May 1968) 190–7; Orientaciones pastorales?, Chillán, May 1968 (Santiago: Imprenta Alfonsiana, 1968); Orientaciones pastorales II, L? Serena, June 1969 (Santiago: Typografia San Pablo, 1969).
Cardinal Raul Silva Henríquez, ‘Iglesia, sacerdocio y politica’, 20 July 1970, and ‘Carta de Mons. José Manuel Santos Presidente de la Conferencia Episcopal de Chile (CECH) a algunos dirigentes campesinos de Linares’, Valdivia, 19 May 1970, both in Documentos del Episcopado: Chile, 1970–197?, edited by Bishop Carlos Oviedo Cavada (Santiago: Ediciones Mundo, 1974) pp. 10–15, 23–5.
Smith, Church and Politics in Chil?, Table 6.1, p. 130.
Ibid., pp. 182–96.
Public subsidies, for example, to the Catholic University of Santiago by 1973 covered 80 per cent of operating costs, as compared to 60 per cent at the end of Frei’s presidency. Ibid., p. 189.
Ibid., pp. 197–8.
Ibid., pp. 201–5.
Ibid., pp. 261–2.
Ibid., pp. 234–47.
Ibid., pp. 253–7.
While those Catholics with rightist views also tried to combine religious and political commitments during the Allende years, they did not disturb the hierarchy as much, since, claimed the bishops in their condemnation of CpS these were not ‘crystallized in organized groups’ as was CpS, did ‘not entail militancy on the part of priests and religious’, did not ‘propound a distinct doctrine or vision for the Church’, nor ‘oppose the ecclesiastical hierarchy in the same measure’. Episcopal Conference of Chile, ‘Christian Faith and Political Activity’, 81, in Christians and Socialism: Documentation of the Christians for Socialism Movement in Latin Americ?, edited by John Eagleson (Maryknoll, NY: Orbis, 1975) p. 217.
In 1975 I interviewed in Chile 186 Catholic leaders, including all 30 active bishops, 41 priests working among different social strata in 18 of the 23 dioceses, 31 priests in a random stratified sample in Santiago, 33 women religious acting as pastoral leaders of CEBs among different social classes in 7 dioceses, and 51 lay men and women participating in CEB’s in urban areas (mainly in Santiago). I found that 70 per cent of these leaders (including 89 per cent of the bishops, 76 per cent of the priests, 51 per cent of the nuns, and 65 per cent of the laity) felt that the military coup was necessary in September 1973. A great many said they were relieved at the time with the re-establishment of social order, but added that they never dreamed that the military would act so repressively, and definitively disapproved of what had transpired since the coup. Smith, Church and Politics in Chil?, Table 7.2, p. 210, and pp. 211–13. 19. Two days after the coup Cardinal Silva and the Permanent Committee of the Episcopal Conference issued a public statement decrying the spilling of ‘blood of civilians and of soldiers’, and asked for ‘respect for persons fallen in battle’, including Allende himself. The statement called for ‘moderation toward the vanquished’ and for ‘no needless reprisals’. It also, however, affirmed the ‘patriotism and selflessness’ of the military junta, and asked all citizens to co-operate with them so as to ‘return soon to institutional normality’. ‘Declaraci6n del Senor Cardenal y del Comité Permanente del Episcopado Chileno’, Santiago, 13 September 1973, Mensaj? 22 (October 1975) 509.
El Comité de Co-operación para la Paz en Chile, ‘Cronica de sus dos anos de labor solidaria’, Santiago, December 1975, 21 pp (mimeographed); US Congress, House, Subcommittee on International Organisations of the Committee on International Relations, ‘Prepared Statement of José Zalaquett Daher, Chief Legal Counsel, Committee of Co-operation for Peace in Chile’, Chile: The Status of Human Rights and Its Relationship to U.S. Economic Assistance Program?, 94th Congress, 2nd session, 1976, pp. 57–65.
For statistical information on foreign support to Church-sponsored social programmes during the first two years after the coup (over $25 million), see Smith, The Church and Politics in Chil?, pp. 325–7 (esp. Table 9.2, p. 326).
In both 1975 (April) and 1974 (September) the Episcopal Conference issued documents that included criticisms of such repressive policies as ‘arbitrary or prolonged detentions’ and the use of ‘physical or moral constraints during interrogations’. In neither document did the bishops explicitly acknowledge the widespread use of torture and arbitrary executions that were occurring during the two years after the coup. Moreover, in the second document, entitled ‘Gospel and Peace’ (September 1975), the hierarchy thanked the military for ‘freeing’ the country ‘from a Marxist dictatorship which appeared inevitable and would have been irreversible’, and they renewed their confidence in the ‘spirit of justice of our armed forces’. Los obispos de Chile, ‘La reconciliación en Chile’, Mensaj? 23 (May 1974) 196–8; Comité Permanente del Episcopado de Chile, ‘Evangelio y Paz’, Mensaj? 24 (October 1975).
Chile-Améric? (Rome) 3 (November—December 1975) 41.
Vicaría de la Solidaridad: quinto ano de labor, 198? (Santiago: Arzobispado de Santiago, 1980) p. 15.
Ibid., pp. 67, 87, 111–13.
Smith, Church and Politics in Chil?, Table 9.2, p. 326.
Since the coup many foreign clergy have been expelled or left under pressure. Some had been active in CpS but many were forced out simply because they were carrying out humanitarian services to those persecuted by the regime. Between 1973 and 1979 there was a loss of 378 foreign priests in the country, precipitating a net decline of 11 per cent in the total clergy. Smith, Church and Politics in Chil?, Table 9.3, p. 332.28. These documents are summarised in Smith, The Church and Politics in Chil?, pp. 305–11.
Ibid., pp. 320–2, 328–9.
In 1976 TFP published a 450-page book (La iglesia del silencio en Chile? in which it excoriated almost all the bishops and a decisive part of the clergy purportedly for having been soft on marxism during Allende’s term and for having undermined traditional Christian respect for private property. The book claimed the hierarchy to be in heresy and called for open resistance to them by Chilean Catholics. Although small in number, TFP had wealthy supporters and some members well placed in government, education, and the media after the coup. The hierarchy responded swiftly by excommunicating all who collaborated in writing or disseminating the book. ‘Declaracién del Comité Permanente’, Mensaj? 25 (July 1976) 316.
Renato Poblete, SJ, Carmen Galilea W. and Patricia van Dorp P., Imagen de la iglesia de hoy y religiosidad de los Chileno? (Santiago: Centro Bellarmino, 1980) p. 38; Smith, Church and Politics in Chil?, p. 340.
Cristián Vives, ‘La solidaridad: una forma de evangelizar y participar en la iglesia’ (Santiago, Centro Bellarmino, 1978) pp. 22–3 (mimeographed).
Katherine Ann Gilfeather, MM, ‘Women and Ministry’, Americ? (2 October, 1976) pp. 191–4.
Enrique Garcia Ahumada, FSC, Nuestra catequesis actual’, Mensaj? 26 (November 1977) 657–61.
Smith, Church and Politics in Chil?, Table 2.3, p. 32.
Ibid., Table 2.5, p.46.
Ibid., Table 2.4, p.41.
Ibid., Tables 9.5 and 9.6, p.344.
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© 1990 Dermot Keogh
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Smith, B.H. (1990). The Catholic Church and Politics in Chile. In: Keogh, D. (eds) Church and Politics in Latin America. Latin American Studies Series. Palgrave Macmillan, London. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-349-09661-9_17
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