The Catholic Church in Haiti: Political and Social Change by Anne Greene

Abstract

BOOK REVIEWS811 state in Mexico." From this section,we also learn much about the Uves of several prominent clerics, as weU as nuns and beatas, aU of whom Brading treats sympatheticaUy . Indeed, as the author reminds us early on, "one bad priest was apt to generate more episcopal paperwork than ten good priests quietly going about their business" (p. xu). The second and third sections—"Priests and Laity" and "Bishops and Chapter "—include essays on the secular clergy, on confraternities, brotherhoods, parochial income, on popular reUgion, bishops and chapters, tithes and chantries, and on the thinking of the three key clerical figures of the early nineteenth century—Manuel Abad y Queipo, Miguel Hidalgo, and José Maria Morelos . AU these chapters contain much that is informative and useful. In these chapters Brading uses case histories of young men denied entry to the priesthood because of non-white ancestry, shows the growing number of unbeneficed priests residing in the diocese in the decades preceding the outbreak of the 1810 Insurgency, demonstrates the serious inequaUty between the wealthy curas and the under-educated and often unemployed priests, many of whom lived in poverty and were reduced to begging for alms, and explains the ways in which the last generation of Spanish bureaucrats repeatedly sought to curtaU the influence, privUeges, and prerogatives of the Mexican clergy. "At aU points," Brading argues,"the church . . . found its jurisdiction chaUenged and reduced ," leading to a growing divide between "the secular and spiritual arms of the monarchy."Popular reUgion, too, came under increasing attack by the end of the eighteenth century. FinaUy, with the Consolidation decree of 1804, church wealth and income also became a target to be plundered by the crown. U there is a central theme running through this study, it is that such repeated attacks on the Church aUenated a substantial portion of the Mexican clergy and contributed to the widespread participation of clerics in the 1810 Insurgency. As the author reminds us at various points in Church and State, the enlightened ministers of the Bourbon period wanted above aU to curtaU ecclesiastical power, no longer viewing the Church "as the mainstay of the crown's authority over society," though it should perhaps have heeded the warnings of Francisco Javier de Iizana y Beaumont, penned in 1809, that "he who has the priests has the Indies." Caroline A.Williams University ofBristol West Indian The Catholic Church in Haiti: Political and Social Change. By Anne Greene. (East Lansing: Michigan State University Press. 1993. Pp. vii, 312. $28.95.) ParadoxicaUy Haiti's history is richer than the country itseU. Not much is scientificaUy known about its religious history, aside from myths created by Hollywood through the distortion of what Voodoo reaUy is. But this poor country is more than this African reUgion. And that is what Greene shows the reader 812book reviews through this book. I would caU this a ground-breaking study of an important part of Haiti's reUgious history. Since the time when the whole of Hispaniola was under Spanish control, the official religion of the colony was Catholicism. This situation did not change after the French took over. One of the main tasks of CathoUcism was to bring into the flock through conversion the substantial slave population of the colony. But for many this ¦was only done in part, since they didn't give up their African beUefs.What we know today as Voodoo is a syncretism ofAfrican and European reUgious traditions, Protestantism included. This book presents the presence of the CathoUc Church and Voodoo as the two main reUgions and how they affected and were affected themselves by the political situation ofthe country through different time periods.The author also studies the Protestant presence and its influence in this struggle. The book has several shortcomings, including repetition. Many times after a subject has been covered, the author repeats it again almost verbatim, and sometimes several times.AdditionaUy at the end of the book, under the subtitle "The Church Elsewhere" she gives detailed information on the Catholic Church in the PhiUppines, El Salvador, and even Colombia which is not pertinent to the discussion. In Chapter 7, which is the last one, Greene loses...