A Catholic in South America

Extract

The state of the Catholic Church in Latin-American countries is so often and so glibly misrepresented by ‘our separated brethren’ who sometimes succeed in misleading even Catholics, that it may be of interest to some to read the impressions of one who spent some two years in Peru, several months in Chile, and made short visits to Panama, Brazil and Argentina.

Some of the impressions gained are necessarily superficial, as they were gleaned in the course of visits of no more than a few days’ duration in Panama, Rio de Janeiro and Buenos Aires. In Chile, however, and still more in Peru, there was more time and more opportunity for observation, conversation and the forming of definite opinions.

Setting forth from San Francisco for that most fascinating voyage down the coast of Mexico and South America to Callao, I had considerable misgivings as to the state of affairs I might expect to find upon my arrival in Peru, and I carried with me a plentiful supply of prejudice. Arriving at Panama early one Sunday morning, I took the electric tram to the old Spanish city in order to hear Mass. It was half-past eight, and, to my dismay, the policeman of whom I enquired my way to a church informed me that I was too late, there were no more Masses. A kindly passer-by, however, told me that at nine the Bishop of X would be present at Mass in the Church of Las Mercedes; so thither I went, thankful to exchange the torrid, sweltering streets for the cool bareness of the church with its glassless windows. The edifice was already packed, but a well-dressed negro courteously insisted on giving me his place.