Hostname: page-component-586b7cd67f-t7czq Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-26T10:42:11.278Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Reform and Reaction in the Colombian Catholic Church

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  11 December 2015

Lars Schoultz
Lars Schoultz*
Affiliation:
Miami University, Oxford, Ohio
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Extract

In the autumn of 1509 the explorer Alonso de Ojeda landed on the northern coast of South America, near where is today the city of Cartagena, and claimed the region in the name of Spain. As some of the natives appeared inclined to question the acquisitive proclivities of the Crown, Ojeda had read to them the principal articles of the Christian faith, hoping to demonstrate the benign nature of his invasion. Apparently feeling that his obligation to the Church was not yet fulfilled, he then informed the local residents “ especially of the supreme jurisdiction of the pope ” and required that they embrace the Catholic religion. Ojeda barely escaped with his life.

Type
Research Article
Information
The Americas , Volume 30 , Issue 2 , October 1973 , pp. 229 - 250
Copyright
Copyright © Academy of American Franciscan History 1973

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

1 Shaw, Carey Jr., “Church and State in Colombia as Observed by American Diplo-mats, 1834–1906,” Hispanic American Historical Review 21 (November, 1941), 577.CrossRefGoogle Scholar

2 Haddox, Benjamin Edward, “A Sociological Study of the Institution of Religion in Colombia,” Ph.D. dissertation, University of Florida, 1962, University Microfilms 62–6530.Google Scholar

3 Lloyd Mecham, J., Church and State in Latin America, rev. ed. (Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 1966), 115.Google Scholar

4 Urrutia, Miguel, The Development of the Colombian Labor Movement (New Haven: Yale University Press, 1969), 4.Google Scholar

5 Mecham, , Church and State, 115.Google Scholar

6 Shaw, Jr., “Church and State in Colombia,” 579.Google Scholar

7 Ibid., 581.

8 Urrutia, , Colombian Labor Movement, 15.Google Scholar

9 Mecham, , Church and State, 117.Google Scholar

10 Ibid., 120; Urrutia, , Colombian Labor Movement, 22–3.Google Scholar

11 Mecham, , Church and State, 120.Google Scholar

12 de Ibarra, Gabriel, El Concordato de Colombia en algunos puntos principales (Bogotá: Editorial Santafé, 1941), 15–17.Google Scholar

13 Ibid., 15.

14 Ibid., 15 ff.

15 Mecham, , Church and State, 124–5.Google Scholar

16 Quoted in de Ibarra, Gabriel, El Concordato, 42.Google Scholar

17 The complete text of the Concordat is given in Ibid., 21–6. An English translation is provided by Mecham, , Church and State, 126–31.Google Scholar

18 de Ibarra, Gabriel, El Concordato, 27–30 Google Scholar; Mecham, , Church and State, 132.Google Scholar

19 Petre, F. Laraine, The Republic of Colombia (London: Edward Stanford, 1900), 98–9.Google Scholar

20 Scruggs, , The Colombian and Venezuelan Republics (Boston: Little, Brown, and Co., 1900), 102.Google Scholar

21 Shaw, Jr., “Church and State in Colombia,” 606–7. Google Scholar

22 Haddox, , “Sociological Study,” 223–4.Google Scholar

23 López, Francisco, Proceso al poder religioso en Colombia (Bogotá:Editorial Hispania, 1968), 19–20.Google Scholar

24 Payne, James L., Patterns of Conflict in Colombia (New Haven: Yale University Press, 1968), 168 Google Scholar; Urrutia, , Colombian Labor Movement, 114.Google Scholar

25 Mecham, , Church and State, 133.Google Scholar

26 López, , Proceso al poder, 21–2.Google Scholar

27 Salamanca, Guillermo, Los partidos en Colombia (Bogotá: Editorial El Voto Nacional, 1961), 197.Google Scholar

28 The Church-Conservative party linkage was dramatically manifested in the anti-Church aspects of the bogotazo in April, 1948. See Dix, Robert H., Colombia, The Political Dimensions of Change (New Haven: Yale University Press, 1967), 308.Google Scholar

29 Mecham, , Church and State, 134.Google Scholar

30 Dix, , Colombia, 109–10.Google Scholar

31 de Kadt, Emanuel, “Paternalism and Populism: Catholics in Latin America,"” Journal of Contemporary History 2 (October, 1967), 94 CrossRefGoogle Scholar; Nieto Rojas, José María, La batalla contra el comunismo en Colombia (Bogotá: Empresa Nacional de Publicaciones, 1956), 131 Google Scholar; López, , Proceso al poder, 23 ff.Google Scholar

32 Turner, Frederick C., Catholicism and Political Development in Latin America (Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 1971), 147, 170Google Scholar; Mecham, , Church and State, 135.Google Scholar

33 Dix, , Colombia, 115, 321.Google Scholar

34 Laureano Gómez y la jerarquía eclesiástica (Bogotá: Ediciones La Unidad, 1954?), 31, quoted in Ibid., 118–19.

35 Rojas pinilla ante el Senado: el gobierno militar ante la historia (Bogotá: Ediciones Excelsior, 1959), 730.

36 Dix, , Colombia, 119–20.Google Scholar

37 Ibid., 135.

38 de Kadt, , “Paternalism and Populism,” 89, 94.Google Scholar

38 El Tiempo, May 31, 1973.

40 Gibbons, William J. S. J., Basic Ecclesiastical Statistics for Latin America (Maryknoll, N. Y.: Maryknoll Publications, 1960), 30–1.Google Scholar

41 Haddox, , “Sociological Study,” 257.Google Scholar

42 Mecham, , Church and State, 133–34.Google Scholar

43 Ramírez, Gustavo Pérez S. J., and Wust, Isaac, La Iglesia en Colombia (Bogotá: CIS, 1961), 53.Google Scholar

44 Ibid., 56–8, 121; Haddox, , “Sociological Study,” 76.Google Scholar

45 Ramírez, Pérez and Wust, , La Iglesia, 99–100.Google Scholar

46 Ibid., 73 ff.

47 Haddox, , “Sociological Study,” 78–9, 88.Google Scholar

48 Ibid., 101; Ramírez, Pérez and Wust, La Iglesia,113, 123 Google Scholar; Turner, , Catholicism and Political Development, 16, 185.Google Scholar

49 Ramírez, Pérez and Wust, , La Iglesia, 150–55.Google Scholar

50 Ibid., 162; Labelle, Yvan and Estrada, Adriana, Latin America in Maps, Charts, and Tables: Socio-Religious Data (Catholicism) (Mexico City: Center of Intercultural Information, 1964), 194.Google Scholar

51 Shaw, Jr., “Church and State in Colombia,” 590–93.Google Scholar

52 Dix, , Colombia, 319 Google Scholar; Ramírez, Gustavo Pérez S. J., and Labelle, Yvan, El problema sacerdotal en América Latina (Bogotá: CIS, 1964).Google Scholar

53 Vallier, Ivan, Catholicism, Social Control, and Modernization in Latin America (Englewood Cliffs, N. J.: Prentice-Hall, 1970), 123.Google Scholar

54 Haddox, , “Sociological Study,” 242 Google Scholar; López, , Proceso al poder, 9.Google Scholar

55 Ross, Edward A., South ofPanama (London: George Alien and Unwin, 1915), 315.Google Scholar

56 de Ibarra, Gabriel, ElConcordato, 21–6.Google Scholar; Mecham, , Churchand State, 126–31.Google Scholar

57 El Tiempo, May 31, 1973.

58 Turner, , Catholicism and Political Development, 2, 73.Google Scholar

59 Mecham, , Church and State, 137 Google Scholar; Labelle, and Estrada, , Latin America in Maps, 239 Google Scholar; Mejía, Juan Alvarez S. J., “Colombia” in Pattee, Richard, ed., El catolicismo contemporáneo en Hispanoamérica (Buenos Aires: Editorial Fides, 1951), 145.Google Scholar

60 Mejía, Alvarez, “Colombia,” 145.Google Scholar

61 Gunther, John, Inside South America (New York: Harper and Row, 1966), 45.Google Scholar

62 Labelle, and Estrada, , Latin America in Maps, 226.Google Scholar

63 Mecham, , Church and State, 137 Google Scholar; Dix, , Colombia, 316 Google Scholar; Gunther, , Inside South America, 460 Google Scholar; de Kadt, , “Paternalism and Populism,” 92–3 Google Scholar; Turner, , Catholicism and Political Development, 71–2.Google Scholar

64 de Kadt, , “Paternalism and Populism,” 92–3.Google Scholar

65 Dix, , Colombia, 317 Google Scholar; Ibid.; Gunther, , Inside South America, 458.Google Scholar

66 Urrutia, , Colombian Labor Movement, 15, 54, 201–3.Google Scholar

67 Ibid., 201, 212; Haddox, , “Sociological Study,” 170.Google Scholar

68 Urrutia, , Colombian Labor Movement, 206, 212, 219.Google Scholar

69 Ibid., 133; Mutchler, David E., The Church as a Political Factor in Latin America (New York: Praeger, 1971), 143–69.Google Scholar

70 Gómez, Carlos Mejía, ¿Qué es el Conservatisme? (Bogotá: Tercer Mundo, 1968), 49.Google Scholar

71 Urrutia, , Colombian Labor Movement, 203.Google Scholar

72 “Amatista y Esmeralda,” Semana, May 22, 1961, 14 as quoted in Haddox, , “Sociological Study,” 207–8.Google Scholar

73 Ibid., 208.

74 Dix, , Colombia, 319.Google Scholar

75 de Kadt, , “Paternalism and Populism,” 91.Google Scholar

76 Borda, Orlando Fals, Peasant Society in the Colombian Andes: A Sociological Study of Saucío (Gainesville: University of Florida Press, 1955), 227.Google Scholar

77 Quoted in Haddox, , “Sociological Study,” 156.Google Scholar

78 The present paper only discusses what appear to be the most important sources of influence. Other sources, the Church's great wealth, for instance, are not inconsiderable in their influence. See López, , Proceso al poder,222 ff.Google Scholar

79 Dix, , Colombia, 311.Google Scholar

80 Camilo’s mother, Isabel Restrepo Gaviria, was married twice. Camilo was her fourth child, but her second by her second marriage.

81 Campos, Germán Guzmán, Camilo, presencia y deslino (Bogota: Antares-Tercer Mundo, 1967)Google Scholar; Pareja, Carlos H., El padre Camilo, el cura guerrillo (Mexico City: Editorial Nuestro América, 1968)Google Scholar; Camilo Torres, el cura que murió en las guerrillas (Barcelona: Editorial Nova Terra, 1968); Habegger, Norberto, Camilo Torres, el cura guerrillo (Buenos Aires: Orestes, 1967)Google Scholar; Turner, , Catholicism and Political Development, 140–45.Google Scholar

82 Restrepo, Camilo Torres, “Social Change and Rural Violence in Columbia,” Studies in Comparative International Development 4 (1968–69), 263–82CrossRefGoogle Scholar; Guzmán, Germán, Camilo Torres, trans, by Ring, John D. (New York: Sheed and Ward, 1969)Google Scholar; García, John Alvarez and Calle, Christian Restrepo, eds., Camilo Torres, trans, by O–Grady, Virginia M. (Springfield, III.: Templegate Publishers, 1968)Google Scholar; Torres, Camilo, Revolutionary Writings, trans, by Olsen, Robert and Day, Linda (New York: Herder and Herder, 1969).Google Scholar The translations vary tremendously in their accuracy. Of particular suspicion is the last mentioned volume. See its review by Lendersdorf, Karl, “Camilo Yanquificado,” NACLA Newsletter 4 (October, 1970), 23–4.CrossRefGoogle Scholar

83 Gheerbrant, Alain, La Iglesia rebelde de América Latina (Mexico City: Siglo Veintiuno, 1970), 250–57.Google Scholar

84 Pérez, Hesper Eduardo, Weiss, Anita,and Belacazar, Octavio, Golconda: el libro rojo de los curas rebeldes (Bogotá: MUNIPROC, 1969), 27 ff., 161; El Tiempo, January 10, 1971, 1–2; January 11, 1971, 1, 20; January 13, 1971, 1, 6; New York Times, January 24, 1971.Google Scholar

85 Pérez, , et al., Golconda, 114.Google Scholar

86 Ibid., 100.

87 Ibid., 116.

88 Haddox, , “Sociological Study,” 152–3, 207–08.Google Scholar See also “Declaración cardenalicia sobre la potestad marital,” Revista Javeriana 55 (June, 1961), 175–77.

89 Mutchler, , Church as a Political Factor, 134.Google Scholar Blame for the failure of Colombia’s agrarian reform cannot be placed at the Church's door, however, as the national administration continues to demonstrate that the “obedezco-pero-no-cumplo” syndrome is hardly confined to religious circles. At times, in fact, the Church has given agrarian reform its fullest support, as in 1967 when Bishop Giulio Franco Aringo offered the government 800 of his diocese's acres for distribution to peasants. Greater love hath no bishop… See Turner, , Catholicism and Political Development, 68.Google Scholar In his “Portents for Politics in Latin American Population Expansion,” Inter-American Economic Affairs 25 (Autumn, 1971), 44–5, Richard Lee Clinton has identified the syndrome.

90 Turner, , Catholicism and Political Development, 107 Google Scholar; Maldonado, Oscar, “Camilo Torres,” CIF Reports 5 (March 16, 1965), 45,Google Scholar as cited in Turner, Ibid.

91 For a description of the reformist steps the Church might initiate, see the work by priest-sociologist Nino, Saturnino Sepúlveda, Pecados en la Iglesia, sociología religiosa (Bogotá: Fundación Investigaciones para el Cambio, 1971).Google Scholar

92 Vallier, , Catholicism, Social Control, and Modernization, especially Ch. 4 Google Scholar; Vallier, Ivan, “Extraction, Insulation, and Re-entry: Toward a Theory of Religious Change,” in Landsberger, Henry A., ed., The Church and Social Change in Latin America (Notre Dame: University of Notre Dame Press, 1970), 9–35 Google Scholar; Vallier, Ivan, “Religious Elites: Differentiation and Developments in Roman Catholicism,” in Lipset, S. M. and Solari, A., Elites in Latin America (London: Oxford University Press, 1967), 190–232.Google Scholar

93 Vallier, , Catholicism, Social Control, 137–41.Google Scholar

94 Pareja, , El padre Camilo, 23.Google Scholar This condition, of course, is not peculiar to Colombia.

95 Aguilar, Federico C., Colombia en presencia de las repúblicas hispanoamericanas (Bogotá: Imprenta de Ignacio Borda, 1884), 236 Google Scholar; Shaw, Jr., “Church and State in Colombia,” 587 Google Scholar; Borda, Fals, Peasant Society, 218–20, 227.Google Scholar

96 Apter, David E, The Politics of Modernization (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1965), 266 ff.Google Scholar