The Catholic Church and Politics in Latin America: Basic Trends and Likely Futures

Abstract

Religion and politics in Latin America today often seem a mass of conflict and contradiction. There is debate over the meaning of events and bitter struggle to shape and control them. There is also confusion. Contradictory claims abound, and the evidence to sort them out is scarce and unreliable, at best subject to very divergent interpretations. All this conflict and contradiction stems from almost thirty years of unprecedented change in both religion and politics. We must recognize that in the past few years, especially after Vatican II, extremely important steps have been taken. Just as the Church previously took on Roman and feudal structures, it is now taking on structures found in today’s civil societies that are more compatible with our growing sense of human rights. This is the often argued ‘democratization of the church’ ... p. 44. There is no real conflict between the ecclesial institution and the ecclesial communities [CEBs] ... The real tension exists between a Church that has opted for the people, for the poor and their liberation and other groups in the same Church that have not made this option, and who have not made it concrete or who persist in keeping to the strictly sacramental and devotional character of faith. (p. 126) Leonardo Boff, Church: Charism and Power, or — Liberation Theology and the Institutional Churc? (New York: Crossroad, 1986).