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Continuities in Colombia*

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  05 February 2009

Daniel H. Levine
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Extract

Lately we have become accustomed to look for change in Latin American Catholicism. Indeed, expectations of innovation and change have largely replaced the norms of continuity which once governed both scholarly and popular outlooks on the Catholic Church in the region. Constant change is now commonly anticipated in the ideas and structures of the churches, in their relation to social movements, and in the form and content of the churches' projections into society and politics as a whole.

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Articles
Information
Journal of Latin American Studies , Volume 17 , Issue 2 , November 1985 , pp. 295 - 317
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 1985

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References

1 Four recent works which stress change are Bruneau, T., The Church in Brazil: The Politics of Religion (Austin, 1982); Levine, D., Religion and Politics in Latin America: The Catholic Church in Venezuela and Colombia (Princeton, 1981);Google ScholarSmith, B., The Church and Politics in Chile: Challenges to Modern Catholicism (Princeton, 1982);CrossRefGoogle Scholar and the papers collected Levine, D. (ed.), Churches and Politics in Latin America (Los Angeles, 1980).Google Scholar For a more polemical statement, see Lernoux, P., Cry of The People (New York, 1980).Google Scholar Much of the force of debate and conflict stems from the innovations of Liberation Theology. On this point see Levine, D., ‘Religion, Society and Politics: States of The Art’, Latin American Research Review (Fall, 1982)Google Scholar and the studies reviewed there. A particularly instructive account of the links between theology, organization, and action remains Smith, B. and Sanks, T., ‘Liberation Ecclesiology: Praxis, Theory, Praxis’, Theological Studies (03, 1977).Google Scholar I review the trajectory of debates on Liberation Theology, with particular concern for its implications in practice, in Levine, D., ‘Religion and Politics: Drawing Lines, Understanding Change’, Latin American Research Review, vol. 20, no. 1 (1985).Google Scholar

2 Of course the issue is nothing new; nor is it peculiar to Latin America. Much recent fine historical work has been devoted to clarifying the relation of popular to institutional religion, and in particular to rethinking the meaning of popular religion and popular culture generally. The following sources are particularly helpful: Obelkevich, J., Religion and the People, 800–1700 (Chapel Hill, 1979);Google ScholarDavis, N. Z., ‘Some Tasks and Themes in The Study of Popular Religion’, in Trinkaus, C. and Obermann, H., (eds.), The Pursuit of Holiness in Late Medieval and Renaissance Religion (Leiden, 1974), pp. 307–36;Google ScholarGinzburg, C., The Cheese and The Worms, The Cosmos of a Sixteenth Century Miller (New York, 1982).Google Scholar For more contemporary accounts see Kselman, T., Miracles and Prophecies in Nineteenth Century France (New Brunswick, 1983),Google ScholarDella Cava, R., Miracle at Joaseiro (New York, 1970), Brintnall, D., Revolt Against The Devil (New York, 1979),Google ScholarWarren, K., The Symbolism of Subordination (Austin, 1978),Google Scholar and Taussig, M., The Devil and Commodity Fetisbism in South America (Chapel Hill, 1980).Google Scholar The struggle to define and control links between the institutional Church and the popular in Latin America has been treated most recently in the dissertation by Scott Mainwaring, ‘The Catholic Church and Politics in Brazil, 1916—1981’ (Stanford, 1983). Mainwaring's study will be published in 1986 by Stanford University Press. See also the studies collected in Levine, Daniel H., (ed.), Religion and Political Conflict in Latin America (Chapel Hill, forthcoming).Google Scholar

3 For a more complete account, see Levine, D., ‘Colombia: The Institutional Church and the Popular’, in Levine, D., (ed.), Religion and Political Conflict.Google Scholar

4 I discuss these alternatives in ‘Authority in Church and Society: Latin American Models’ Comparative Studies in Society and History, (10, 1978).Google Scholar For greater detail, see Levine, D., Religion and Politics in Latin America: The Catholic Church in Venezuela and Colombia (Princeton, 1981).CrossRefGoogle Scholar A particularly useful account remains Dulles, A., Models of The Church, (New York, 1974).Google Scholar

5 See Galilea, S., Los pobres nos evangelizan? (Bogotá, 1977)Google Scholar and Dussel, E., ‘La base en la teología de la liberación: perspectiva Latinoamericana’, Concilium (04, 1975).Google Scholar This entire issue of Concilium is devoted to debates over base communities. See also Richard, P., ‘El neo-conservadurismo progresista Latino Americana’, Concilium (01, 1981) for a critique of the persistence of authoritarianism in supposedly ‘progressive’ Church structures.Google Scholar

6 The issue of class, and the need for historically specific analyses as a base for analysis and reflection was a major theme of debates at the Third General Conference of Latin American Bishops, held in Puebla, Mexico in early 1979. Official preparatory documents for the Conference took secularization as the dominant problem of Latin American society, and attributed social conflict primarily to the ‘strains’ of ‘modernization’. This position was challenged and ultimately modified by those insisting on a more structural analysis of inequality, conflict, and injustice. On Puebla see above all P. Berryman, ‘What Happened at Puebla’, in D. Levine (ed.), Churches and Politics.

7 On base communities, see especially Bruneau, T., ‘Basic Christian Communities in Latin America: Their Nature and Significance’ (especially in Brazil), in Levine, D. (ed.), Churches and Politics in Latin America (Los Angeles, 1980), pp. (225–37)Google Scholar and his The Church in Brazil: The Politics of Religion (Austin, 1982) which has an extensive bibliography. I review the evidence in ‘Religion and Politics: Dimensions of Renewal’ Thought (06, 1984).Google ScholarTorres, S. and Eagleson, J., (ed.), The Challenge of Basic Christian Communities (Maryknoll, 1981)Google Scholar provides a range of recent statements. See also B. Smith. The Church and Politics in Chile: Dodson, M. and Montgomery, T. S., ‘The Churches in The Nicaraguan Revolution’, in Walker, T. (ed.), Nicaragua in Revolution (New York, 1981), Mainwaring, The Catholic Church and Politics in Brazil and P. Lernoux, Cry of The People.Google Scholar

8 Catholicism has traditionally insisted on maintaining an appeal to all classes, nations, and social conditions. The centrality of this position to the Church's social and political stance is stressed particularly in Smith The Church and Politics in Chile. Mainwaring puts it well: ‘The Church has changed remarkably in the past three decades, yet it is a singularly complex institution committed to appealing to people of all nations and all political beliefs and it remains an institution with interests vested in avoiding radical political change in ecclesial practices or in politics.’ The Catholic Church and Politics in Brarzil, p. 13.

9 Cf. Gorostiaga, X. (ed.), Para entender America Latina: aporte colectivo de los cientificos sociales en Puebla (Panama, 1979). pp. 147, 161, and passim. There are clearly echoes of classical populism here, above all in the belief that ‘The People’ embody uniquely valid insights, and that identifying with the people is a necessary step to valid and authentic political commitment.Google Scholar

10 Jean Guy Vaillancourt makes a similar point in discussing the Vatican's consistent policy of restricting the autonomy of lay groups. ‘The Vatican could not tolerate real grass-roots autonomy because any form of autonomy and participation on the part of an independent laity was seen as leading to the gradual disintegration of the Church as an ideological and organizational force.’ Papal Power: A Study of Vatican Control Over Lay Catholic Elites (Berkeley, 1980).Google Scholar On this point, see also Roggi, G., Catholic Action in Italy: The Sociology of a Sponsored Oranization (Stanford, 1967).Google Scholar On the fear which underlies this position, see Segundo, J. L., The Hidden Motives.Google Scholar

11 For a detailed account of the evolution of these positions in Colombia, see my Religion and Politics, especially chapters 3–6.

12 Conferencia Episcopal de Colombia, La Iglesia ante el cambio (Bogotá, 1969).Google Scholar

13 See particularly Conferencia Episcopal de Colombia, Identidad Cristiana en la accion por la justicia (Bogotá, 1976).Google Scholar For a detailed account, see Levine, D., Religion and Politics, pp. 1–5.Google Scholar

14 On these issues, see Hebblethwaite, P., The Runaway Church: Post-Conciliar Growth or Decline (New York, 1975)Google Scholar and his penetrating article, ‘La Iglesia polaca, modelo para la iglesia universal?’ Concilium (01, 1981).Google Scholar See also Vaillancourt, Papal Power: Mainwaring, The Church and Politics in Brazil, and, for a detailed account of papal intervention in the Dutch Church, Coleman, J., The Evolution of Dutch Catholicism (Berkeley, 1978).Google Scholar

15 These are collected in CELAM, Aportes de las conferencias episcopales, libro auxiliar 3 (Bogotá, 1978)Google Scholar

16 ‘Aporte de la conferencia episcopal de Colombio’, in ibid., pp. 77–354.

17 ibid., pp. 161–2.

18 López Trujillo, A., Opciones e Interpretaciones a la Luz de Puebla (Bogotá, n.d.) pp. 32–3.Google Scholar

19 Relgion and Politics, esp. chapters 4–6.

20 The reference to ‘touching bottom’ is made in the Pastoral Message issued by the Thirty-Sixth Plenary Assembly of the Bishops' Conference in 1981. Conferencia Episcopal de, Colombia, Messaje pastoral (Bogotá, 1981), p. 30.Google Scholar A representative selection of the bishops' views can be found in the document issued by the National Secretariat for Social Pastoral (SNPS), a department of the Bishops' Permanent Secretariat. See SNPS, Aproximación a la realidad Colombiana (Bogotá, 1981).Google Scholar

21 Aproximación a la realidad Colombiana, p. 125.Google Scholar

22 ibid., p. 132.

23 Religion and Politics in Latin America, especially chapter 7. For a useful account of Italian Catholic Action which stresses this point, see Poggi, G., Catholic Action in Italy (Stanford, 1971). See also M. Dodson, ‘The Christian Left in Latin America’, in D. Levine (ed.), Churches and Politics, for a good statement of the radical critique of this position.Google Scholar

24 For a detailed account of the history of Catholic organization in Colombia, see D. Levine Religion and Politics, chapter 7.

25 This periodization is similar to that used in the training materials for lay leaders issued by the Bishops' Conference. Cf., ‘Lección no. 9. La pastoral social en Colombia’, in SNPS, Curso de pastoral social (Bogotá, mimeo, n.d.).Google Scholar

26 For example: ‘any ideological position which Christians assume must be taken in accord with the general doctrine of the Church and with the teachings of the bishops in particular. It makes no sense to uphold as Christian an ideological position already condemned by the Church. Unfortunately, this sort of thing makes for ambiguities. Christians must be radical in their loyalty to the Church’. In ‘Lección no. 10. Compromiso Politico del Cristiano’, in ibid., p. 319. The lesson goes on to list coherence between faith and political actions as another necessary criterion.

27 López, Trujillo, op. cit., p. 21.Google Scholar

28 SPEC, Agentes de comunión y participación diaconos permanentes y ministros laicos (Bogotá, 1979), p. 15.Google Scholar

29 Such claims are laid out, for example, in the ‘Mensaje de la 36 asamblea plenaria de la conferencia episcopal de Colombia’, published in SPEC, Documentación (Bogotá, 1980). A recent official publication claims over 6,000 cebs. See, Aproximación a la realidad Colombiana, p. 109. I discuss the bishops' tendency to rename old groups in Religion and Politics, chapter 7.Google Scholar

30 This is visible in ‘Las comunidades eclesiales de base y la parroquia’, Revista de Misiones (Bogotá, 05–06, 1981),Google Scholar and Ivan, Marín, ‘Experienca de ministenios en Colombia’ in Conferencia Episcopal, de Colombia, Renovación pastoral y nuevos ministerios (Bogotá, 1975), especially pp. 104–6. For a critical perspective on the meaning of ‘base’, see E. Dussel, 'La base en la teologí loc. cit.Google Scholar

31 The eight constitutive traits are listed in SPEC, Vivamos la Iglesia: comunidad eclesial de base (Bogotá, 1981), p. 30.Google Scholar The bishops' view of cebs draws heavily on the work of CELAM-sponsored institutes. A good example is CELAM, Las comunidades eclesiales de base en America Latina(Bogotá, 1977). The writings of the Brazilian José Marins have been particularly influential.Google Scholar

32 ‘Aporte de la conferencia episcopal de Colombia’, op. cit., p. 179.Google Scholar

33 Interview, 23 July 1981.

34 Most articles are published anonymously, to protect the authors from reprisals.

35 ‘Desde la perspective de la Iglesia de los Probes’, Solidaridad (Bogotá, 06, 1979), p. 35.Google Scholar

36 See, for example, the documents collected in SAL: Un campramiso sacerdotal en la lucha de clases, documentos 1972–1978 (Bogotá, 1978).Google Scholar SAL (Sacerdotes Para America Latina, or Priests for Latin America) was a national organization of radical clergy and religious in Colombia. Mainwaring reports a similar withdrawal from confrontation in Brazil. See The Catholic Church and Politics in Brazil, p. 214.Google Scholar

37 Interview, 23 July 1981.

38 Interview, 20 July 1981.

39 Conferencia Episcopal de Colombia, Mensaje pastoral (Bogotá, XXXVI Asambla Plenaria, 1981), p. 31.Google Scholar

40 Geertz, C., Negera: The Theatre State in Nineteenth Century Bali (Princeton, 1980), p. 135.Google Scholar