The Vatican and Catholic Activism in Mexico and Chile: The Politics of Transnational Catholicism, 1920–1940 by Stephen J. C. Andes (review)

Abstract

The Vatican and Catholic Activism in Mexico and Chile: The Politics of Transnational Catholicism, 1920-1940. By Stephen J. C. Andes. [Oxford Historical Monographs.] (New York: Oxford University Press. 2014. Pp. xiv, 250. $99.00. ISBN 978-0-19-968848-7.)Stephen Andes's excellent study of transnational Catholic politics in Mexico, Chile, and Rome connects two national histories to inter war V atican diplomacy. The book is rigorously transnational in methodology, too, and plumbs Mexican, Chilean, and Vatican archives. Thematically, Ardes offers a politico-diplomatic history of the Romanization of Latin American Churches, a theme that the historiography usually addresses with reference to cultural topics and earlier periods. Ardes makes an original intervention by illuminating a critical phase in which Catholics aimed to build a neo-Christendom, so discomforting national governments if not Rome itself. Superior Vatican sources also give him access to the corridors of political power, substantiating a convincing thesis of attrition and laicization. On one hand, he argues, Rome pursued an unwavering strategy from Leo XIII's papacy, canalizing Catholics away from radical confessional parties into civic bodies (especially Catholic Action). The reduction of autonomous organizations, furthermore, increased Rome's political bargaining power, with the papacy emerging as essential state interlocutor. Counter-intuitively, Andes concludes that the differentiation of Catholics' political/religious lives facilitated the growth of Christian Democracy by getting the Church out of politics; henceforth, secular parties could draw inspiration from Catholic doctrine without implicating the institution.The book first charts the revamping of the nunciature system and creation of an Ecclesiastical Affairs section as the means through which Vatican elites engaged secular governments and dominated episcopates. Core chapters describe an intraecclesial power struggle (p. 4) between Roman and Latin American Catholicisms. Three chapters on Mexico trace the rise of a headstrong social Catholicism through Jesuit-run bodies like the Social Secretariat or the secret brotherhood of the U. By the end, we see how Ecclesiastical Affairs pressured the bishops to curb such militancy in the interests of a Church-state modus vivendi. Aides has fascinating finds concerning the role of Cardinal Eugenio Pacelli, who compelled Mexican lay leaders to obedience in New York in 1936; he reveals how intense Vatican pressure was brought to bear on Leopoldo Ruiz as Mexico's homegrown (and often despised) apostolic delegate. By 1938, then, the division of Catholic activism into nonconfessional parties and pious organizations accountable to Rome was achieved.To Aides's credit, he is even-handed in his discussion of Chile. …