The Vatican and Catholic Activism in Mexico and Chile - by Andes, Stephen J. C.

Abstract

Andes, Stephen J. C. The Vatican and Catholic Activism in Mexico and Chile, Oxford University Press (Oxford), xiii + 272 pp. £63.00 hbk. Stephen J. C. Andes has written a fascinating and accessible book on Catholic activism in two turbulent decades of Latin American history, the 1920s and the 1930s. During this period the traditional authority of the Catholic Church in the region was being challenged by processes of secular national building, socialist advance and not least by a liberal tide. Tensions between liberal states and the clergy date back to the years following independence, but despite liberal political leadership a utopian vision of a Catholic society in conformity with the social doctrine of the Church still motivated many Latin American Catholics and Vatican officials in the early twentieth century. However, in the period covered in the book, it had become clear that this vision would not materialise and the Catholic Church instead, had to figure out how to defend itself against secularisation and maintain a certain position within Latin American societies. Andes' book explores the different tactics adopted by both the clergy and lay Catholics in two Latin American countries, Mexico and Chile. These two countries provide interesting points of comparison, not only because of their geographic location in opposite ends of Latin America, but also because Mexico's violent history in the 1920s, in which the Catholic Church was deeply involved, provides an interesting contrast to the relatively peaceful attempts of Chilean Catholics to position themselves within a national political landscape. Andes argues explicitly for a transnational approach and as the title of the book indicates, he is at some pains to link Catholic activism in Chile and Mexico to official Vatican policies on the social and political engagement of Catholics. Throughout the book he carefully describes how the fear of secularism resulted in different kinds of diplomatic negotiations and occasional conflicts with state powers. He further shows how a growing concern with social and economic justice and a perceived necessity of establishing a third way (an alternative to socialist and liberalist agendas) inspired different kinds of lay activism in Chile and Mexico, including the consolidation and outreach of the non-political organisation Catholic Action, the formation of Catholic unions and the gradual movement of lay Catholics into the world of party politics. But more than any other book on Latin American Church history Andes also highlights the importance of Rome in the construction of political activism in Chile and Mexico in the 1920s and 1930s. Thus he shows how Vatican opposition to the formation of explicitly Catholic political parties and the attempt to monopolise political power within ecclesial ranks and concentrate organised social engagement of lay Catholics within Catholic Action resulted in significant intra-ecclesial power struggles in both Mexico and Chile. Unsurprisingly for a book on Catholicism and politics in Latin America in the early part of the twentieth century, a good deal of attention is focused on the Mexican revolution (1926–1929) which for many historians stands out as a particularly bloody conflict in which the Church was deeply involved. Pursuing a transnational approach Andes goes to some length in highlighting the shifting and at times ambiguous policies of the Vatican towards this conflict as well as the role of American Catholic organizations in pressuring the American government to bring the conflict to settlement. In Chile relationships between the Catholic Church and the state were more peaceful, and the official separation between the two in 1925 was rather undramatic, but Andes shows how the Mexican conflict, often evoked by Church authorities as a prime example of the potential horrors of governmental anti-clericalism, inspired a strengthening of Catholic conservatism in the country. The book also offers a comprehensive treatment of the alliances between the Chilean Church authorities and the Conservative Party (which at the time played the role of an unofficial Catholic party) and of ongoing disagreements concerning the relation between the Conservative Party and Catholic Action. The book is extremely rich in detail and includes nuanced and well informed analysis of the complex and shifting intersections between Catholicism and the world of politics during the 1930s and 1940s. This short review cannot do justice to the historical complexities that Andes beautifully and convincingly explores, but the book is to be recommended to students and scholars with an interest in Latin American political and/or religious history.