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The Catholic Lay Movement in Peru: 1867-1959*

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  11 December 2015

Jeffrey L. Klaiber S.J.
Jeffrey L. Klaiber S.J.*
Affiliation:
Catholic University, Lima, Peru
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Extract

The dramatic changes in the Latin American church since the Second Vatican Council have taken many observers by surprise. In search of an explanation for these changes, much recent scholarship has devoted itself to analyzing the changing political climate, the influx of foreign religious personnel, the creation of radical priests' groups, the impact of Vatican II itself and the episcopal assemblies of Medellín and Puebla and, of course, the varying currents of liberation theology. In contrast, the tendency has been to overlook pre-Vatican II history. The pre-conciliar Peruvian church in particular has been characterized as tradition-bound, obscurantist or subservient to the upper classes. One author writing in the early seventies stated:

“The intimacy between the church and the Peruvian upper class has been an unvarying characteristic of colonial, post-independence and modern eras in Peru.”

Type
Research Article
Information
The Americas , Volume 40 , Issue 2 , October 1983 , pp. 149 - 170
Copyright
Copyright © Academy of American Franciscan History 1983

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Footnotes

*

The research for this article was made possible by a Walsh-Price Fellowship of the Maryknoll Fathers and Brothers.

References

1 Stephans, Richard, Wealth and Power in Peru (Metuchen, N.J. The Scarecrow Press, 1971), P.70.Google Scholar

2 Astiz, Carlos, Pressure Groups and Power Elites in Peruvian Politics (Ithaca, New York: Cornell University Press, 1969), P. 173.Google Scholar The author maintains the same view in a later study, “The Catholic Church in the Peruvian Political System,” in Chaplin, David (ed.), Peruvian Nationalism, A Corporatist Revolution (New Brunswick, New Jersey: Transaction, Inc., 1976), Pp. 454–479.Google Scholar

3 Anales de la Sociedad Católico-Peruana, Volume I, Primera Asamblea General (Lima, 1868), P.4.

4 Anales de la Sociedad Católico-Peruana, Volume I (Puno, 1968), P. 7.

5 For a more complete list of the Catholic press, see Basadre, Jorge, Historia de la República del Perú (6th ed.; Lima: Editorial Universitaria, 1970), Vol. 25, Pp. 140–149.Google Scholar

6 Sections of this speech have been preserved in the private notes of Father Enrique Bartra, Peruvian Jesuit church historian. Ugarte, Ruben Vargas S.J., refers briefly to the Peruvian Catholic Society and the Catholic Union in, Historia de la Iglesia en el Perú (Burgos, 1962), Vol. 5., Pp. 330–332.Google Scholar

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10 A list of delegates at the congress is found in the Anales del congreso, Pp. 333–339.

11 Archdiocesan Archive, Cuzco, C-X1V, 1, 10.

12 El Deber (Arequipa), Oct.27, 1919, P. 2. For a list of the presidents of the Catholic Union, see García, Elvira y García, , La Mujer peruana, P. 647.Google Scholar

13 For overviews of the Peruvian oligarchy see: Bourricaud, François, Power and Society in Contemporary Peru (New York: Praeger, 1970)Google Scholar; Gilbert, Denis, La Oligarquía peruana: Historia de tres familias (Lima, Editorial Horizonte, 1982),Google Scholar and Burga, Manuel and Galindo, Alberto Flores, Apogeo y crisis de la República aristocrática (Lima: Ediciones Rikchay Peru, 1979).Google Scholar All of these studies concur in that, although members of the oligarchy attended the best religious schools and went to Mass in the most fashionable parishes, and some even became honorary patrons of cofrater-nities, by and large religion, and much less defense of the Catholic church, does not seem to have played an important role in their lives. They generally left the task of attending to religious and charitable activities to their wives.

14 Members of the López de Romaña family are listed in the directorate of both the Catholic Union for Men and for Women in the year 1919. El Deber, Sept. 23, P. 2; Oct. 27, P. 2, 1919.

15 Prado, Javier y Ugarteche, , Estado social del Perù durante la dominación española (Lima, 1894).Google Scholar On the anticlericalism of Perù’s upper class intellectuals, see Sánchez’, Luis Alberto incisive chapter, “Religiosos, conversos y calculadores,” in Balance y liquidación del novecientos (4th ed.; Lima: Editorial Universo, 1973), Pp. 177–189.Google Scholar

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20 La Realidad nacional, Pp. 30–32; 79–81; 115. For Belaúnde’s earliest condemnation of the “plutocracy,” see Meditaciones peruanas (2nd ed.; Lima, 1963), Pp. 240–243.

21 Bourricaud, François, Poder y sociedad en el Perú contemporáneo, trans, from the French (Buenos Aires: Editorial Sur, 1967), Pp. 49–51.Google Scholar

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23 Ibid., P. 140. Denis Gilbert develops this theme further to show that Bustamante’s government was one of the first in which the oligarchy did not have a controlling influence. Gilbert, , La Oligarquía peruana. Pp. 81–86.Google Scholar Gilbert also supports Bustamante’s claim that the oligarchy was just as responsible as the APRA for his overthrow.

24 Jacquette, Jane, “The Politics of Development in Peru” (Ph.D. diss., Cornell University, 1971), P. 86,Google Scholar cited in Gilbert, , La Oligarquía peruana, P. 95.Google Scholar

25 For a discussion of Catholic intellectual currents in nineteenth and twentieth century Peru, see Basadre, Jorge, “Para la historia de las ideas en el Perú: un esquema histórico sobre el catolicismo ultramontano, liberal y social y el Democratismo Cristiano,” Scienta et Praxis (Universidad de Lima) 11 (1976): 52–65.Google Scholar

26 El Deber, April 29, 1901, Pp. 2–3.

27 El Deber, March 20, 1919, P. 2.

28 Archdiocesan Archive, Cuzco, C-XIV, 1, 12.

29 For an overview of labor unions in Peru, with particular reference to MOSCIP, see the chapter by Douglas, William A., “U.S. Labor Policy in Peru—Past and Present,” in Sharp, Daniel (ed.), U.S. Foreign Policy and Peru (Austin: University of Texas Press, 1972), Pp. 317–336.Google Scholar

30 ln 1935 the Catholic Youth Center celebrated its fortieth anniversary with some 300 youth present. Víctor Andrés Belaúnde attended, as did Carlos Arenas y Loayza, then prime minister under President Benavides. El Amigo del Clero, May, 1935, P. 48.

31 These and other Catholic groups are listed in the different archdiocesan yearbooks, which in reality came out only sporadically: Anuario eclesiástico de la Arquidiócesis de Lima para el año 1916; Anuario… para el año 1935, both edited by Monsignor Belisario A. Philipps.

32 Arróspide, César recounts the history of these groups in his article, “El Movimiento católico seglar en los años 20,” in Revista de la Universidad Católica New series, 5 (August, 1979): 5–24.Google Scholar Also, private interview with César Arróspide, Lima, November 20, 1981.

33 A brief history of the Fides Center is found in a periodical published by the Center bearing the same name, Fides, Sept. 1, 1951, P. 1, found in Centro Bartolomé de las Casas Documentation Center, Lima. Also, private interview with Father Gerardo Alarco, Lima, November 25, 1981.

34 Many of these data were gathered in an interview with Ernesto Alayza Grundy, currently a senator in the Peruvian parliament. Lima, June 11, 1982.

35 Private interview with Father Eduardo Suárez Jimena, Lima June 26, 1982.

36 Verdades, November 3, 1934, P. 5. Verdades, which came out between 1930 and 1958, was the principal Catholic newspaper of Lima in that period.

37 El Amigo del Clew, March 10, Pp. 1038–1042; March 17, Pp. 1049–1069, 1929.

38 These photographs may be found in the special edition of El Amigo del Clero on the Eucharistie Congress, October, November and December, 1935, Pp. 24–25.

39 de Zevallos, Luis Ortiz, Lima, su evolución creadora (Lima, 1978), P. 5.Google Scholar

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42 Gustavo Gutiérrez is listed among those present at a meeting of the National Council of Catholic Action Youth in 1950, to which Father José Dammert acted as advisor. Nuevo Frente, January 1950, in Bartolomé de las Casas Documentation Center. Also, interview with Bishop José Dammert, Lima, July 31, 1982.

43 Acción Católica de la Juventud Femenina Peruana, Memoria (Lima, 1936). In the Pedro Benvenutto collection, Universidad del Pacífico, Lima.

44 Verdades, Oct. 23, 1937, Pp. 3–6.

45 Primer Congreso Nacional de Acción Católica (Lima, 1958), P. 264.

46 Grundy, Jorge Alayza, “Memoria de la Junta Nacional de la Acción Católica correspondiente al período 1958–1959” (mimeographed). Bartolomé de las Casas Center, Lima.Google Scholar

47 “Acción Católica, Cuzco” (typewritten sheets), Archdiocesan Archive, Cuzco, XX, 1, 5.

48 El Amigo del Clero, January, 1936, P. 8.

49 Astiz, , Pressure Groups and Power Elites, Pp. 172–181 Google Scholar; Peruvian Nationalism, A Corporatist Revolution, ed. by Chaplin, David, Pp. 454–461.Google Scholar

50 César Pacheco, close confidant of Belaúnde, sustains the view that Belaúnde was far more representative of his generation than Agüero, Riva. In his “Estudio preliminar” of Belaúnde’s Memorias completas, Vol. 1, Pp. 58–61.Google Scholar Four men who had been disciples of both Belaúnde and Riva Agüero concurred unanimously that though Riva Agüero was a more “solid” thinker, Belaúnde was more influential: Gerardo Alarco, César Arróspide, Eduardo Suárez and Ernesto Alayza Grundy, in private interviews already cited.

51 Luis Alberto Sánchez discusses the proximity of Belaúnde to both Haya and Mariátegui in his prologue to the fourth edition of Belaúnde’s, La Realidad nacional, Pp. 21–28.Google Scholar James, Agut also underlines the closeness of Belaúnde to Aprista ideology: “The Peruvian Revolution and Catholic Corporatism: Armed Forces Rule since 1968” (Ph.D. diss., University of Miami, 1975), Pp. 317–328.Google Scholar

52 Verdades, Oct. 25, 1930, P. 4.

53 See Klaiber, Jeffrey, Religion and Revolution in Peru, 1824–1976 (Notre Dame: University of Notre Dame, 1977), Pp. 139–163.Google Scholar

54 Lowenthal, Abraham F. (ed.) The Peruvian Experiment: Continuity and Change under Military Rule (Princeton, N.J.: Princeton University Press, 1975), Pp. 357–360 Google Scholar; Chávez, Héctor Cornejo, Socialcrislianismo y revolución peruana (Lima: Ediciones Andinas, 1975).Google Scholar

55 Jorge Alayza Grundy, “Memoria de la Junta Nacional de la Acción Católica…”

56 Secretaría General del Episcopado del Perú, Exigencias sociales del catolicismo en el Perú (Lima, 1959).