Enforcement was lax, and while some blame the Church for not doing enough to liberate the Indians, others point to the Church as the only voice raised on behalf of indigenous peoples. [47] Other laws attacked the privileges traditionally enjoyed by the military, which was significant since the military had been instrumental in putting and keeping Mexican governments in office since Emperor Agustín de Iturbide in the 1820s. Both Catholics and Protestants had suffered terribly during the European religious wars that occurred in the wake of the Reformation, with countless numbers imprisoned, tortured, and killed. [48] Marriage became a civil contract, although no provision for divorce was authorized. The event which today marks in the minds of most Americans the beginning of their history was the landing in 1620 of the so-called Pilgrim Fathers at a place they named Plymouth on the coast of what is now Massachusetts. [49], One other significant Reform Law was the Law for the Nationalization of Ecclesiastical Properties, which would eventually secularize nearly all of the country's monasteries and convents. The Catholic Church was key to their ability to control the continent with only a small military. December 1999. The Juárez Law, named after Benito Juárez, restricted clerical privileges, specifically the authority of Church courts,[46] by subverting their authority to civil law. Guadalupe is often considered a mixture of the cultures which blend to form Mexico, both racially[36] and religiously[37] Guadalupe is sometimes called the "first mestiza"[38] or "the first Mexican". This can be attributed in large part to the lingering effects of Spanish and Portuguese colonization of the region and the Roman Catholic missions that accompanied those endeavours. [citation needed], The effects of the war on the Church were profound. The Cristero War was eventually resolved diplomatically, largely with the influence of the U.S. One cannot understand Latin America without understanding the history of the Catholic Church in the region. Episcopal News Service. In 1954, Perón reversed the fortunes of the church by threatening total disestablishment and retracting critical functions, including the teaching of religious education in public schools. In the 1960s, growing social awareness and politicization in the Latin American Church gave birth to liberation theology which openly supported anti-imperialist movements. Jesuit missions in Latin America were very controversial in Europe, especially in Spain and Portugal where they were seen as interfering with the proper colonial enterprises of the royal governments. The Jesuits were often the only force standing between the Native Americans and slavery. It is characterised by European colonization of missionary activity. Juan Juarez, was designated Bishop of Florida. [13] In the letter, he argued that the Amerindians' workload under the Spanish colonists did not allow them to properly “provide for their families and the opportunity to become good Christians. Between 1926 and 1929 an armed conflict in the form of a popular uprising broke out against the anti-Catholic\ anti-clerical Mexican government, set off specifically by the anti-clerical provisions of the Mexican Constitution of 1917. [26] In a challenge to Spanish and Portuguese policy, Pope Gregory XVI, began to appoint his own candidates as bishops in the colonies, condemned slavery and the slave trade in the 1839 papal bull In supremo apostolatus, and approved the ordination of native clergy in the face of government racism. Article 3 called for secular education in the schools and prohibited the Church from engaging in primary education; Article 5 outlawed monastic orders; Article 24 forbade public worship outside the confines of churches; and Article 27 placed restrictions on the right of religious organizations to hold property. The conflict is known as the Cristero War. Catholics in Latin America. Many of these laws were resisted, leading to the Cristero Rebellion of 1927–1929. La Violencia refers to an era of civil conflict in various areas of the Colombian countryside between supporters of the Colombian Liberal Party and the Colombian Conservative Party, a conflict which took place roughly from 1948 to 1958. [43] Some members of these liberal regimes sought to imitate the Spain of the 1830s (and revolutionary France of a half-century earlier) in expropriating the wealth of the Catholic Church, and in imitating the 18th-century benevolent despots in restricting or prohibiting the religious institutes. [16] The group initiated the “organized effort to evangelize the native people of Mexico.”[16] The Franciscans’ views of Amerindians religious beliefs and evangelization strategies are highlighted letter by Friar Francisco Angelorum, providing instructions on their evangelization tasks in Mexico. What resulted was a new form of “Popular Catholicism, meaning Christianity created by the people.” (Jacobsen, 79) The Latin American Independence movements of the 19 th century made a shift in the religious sphere, but not as dramatic as the revolutionary enlightenment ideals that flourished in the United States. W hen Christopher Columbus arrived in America, the Catholic Church moved quickly to establish its control in the newly discovered territory. It is partly because the Jesuits, such as Antonio Ruiz de Montoya, protected the natives (whom certain Spanish and Portuguese colonizers wanted to enslave) that the Society of Jesus was suppressed. The purpose of the law was to convert lands held by corporate entities such as the Church into private property, favoring those who already lived on it. [10] However, in contrast with de Montesinos’ views, de Vitoria reasoned that if the Amerindians were to oppose the Catholic faith with “blasphemies,” war against them would be justified. December 1999. Pope Alexander VI, in the papal bull Inter caetera, awarded colonial rights over most of the newly discovered lands to Spain and Portugal. In Argentina, there is Our Lady of Luján. Following Christopher Columbus ’s arrival in the region in 1492, Spain claimed much of the Americas. Jesuit priests such as Manuel da Nóbrega and José de Anchieta founded several towns in Brazil in the 16th century, including São Paulo and Rio de Janeiro, and were very influential in the pacification, religious conversion and education of Indian nations. Liberal anti-clericalists of the 1880s established a new pattern of church-state relations in which the official constitutional status of the Church was preserved while the state assumed control of many functions formerly the province of the Church. [18], When some Europeans questioned whether the Indians were truly human and worthy of baptism, Pope Paul III in the 1537 bull Sublimis Deus confirmed that "their souls were as immortal as those of Europeans" and they should neither be robbed nor turned into slaves. The Catholic Church was undoubtedly the single most important institution in colonial Latin America. Iberians introduced Roman Catholicism to “Latin America” when Spain and Portugal conquered and colonized their respective New World empires after 1500. [6][7][8] King Ferdinand enacted the Laws of Burgos and Valladolid in response. [24] These missions brought grain, cattle and a new way of living to the Indian tribes of California. Missionaries attempted with varied success to convert Amerindians and enslaved Africans from their belief systems and to make Catholicism the only religion practiced in colonial Ibero-America. A 2000 census reported that 88 percent of Mexicans identify as Catholic. Many view this as a sign that Catholicism’s primacy in the region is at last beginning to wane. In Brazil, Our Lady of Aparecida was declared in 1929 official Patron Saint of the country by Pope Pius XI. Together throughout South America but especially in present-day Brazil and Paraguay they formed Christian Native American city-states, called "reductions" (Spanish Reducciones, Portuguese Reduções). However, the Lerdo Law did not apply only to the Church. Despite decrees baring their entry into the New World, hebreo cristianos (Hebrew Christians), nuevo cristianos (New Christians), Moriscos (Moors), and other “heretics” began to show up in Latin America alongside the Catholics. It is important that students recognize that the history of the Catholic Church in Latin America was not merely an adjunct to the conquest or a side issue in the later independence movement but, rather that the history of the conquest and the history of the Church, itself are completely intertwined. As the Inquisitors labored to purge the continent of non-Catholics, the new Spanish and Portuguese governors encouraged the spread of Catholicism among the native populations, and not just because it gave them political support from the Vatican. Moreover, it has taken Latin America much longer than other parts of the West to adopt religious freedom in theory and in practice, and the habit of respect for those rights is only gradually being developed. The tension between civilian and clerical authority dominated Ecuador's history for much of the 19th and early 20th centuries. CNS Photo/Felipe Caicedo, Reuters. [28], The Dominican missionaries were part of the Catholic Church's Dominican Order. Thirty-five years after the first dozen Franciscans arrived, there were 800 missionaries in Mexico alone. [50][55] It appears that ten states were left without any priests.[55]. Lopez, Lydia. On December 1511, the Dominican friar Antonio de Montesinos openly rebuked the Spanish authorities governing Hispaniola for their mistreatment of the American natives, telling them "... you are in mortal sin ... for the cruelty and tyranny you use in dealing with these innocent people". For most of the history of post-colonial Latin America, religious rights have been regularly violated, and even now, tensions and conflict in the area of religion remain. With the use of Indian labour, the reductions became economically successful. These Liberals held that the Church and its intellectual backwardness were responsible for a lack of spiritual and material progress in Colombia. It stated that no corporate body could own land. [32] In his work, In Defense of the Indians, de Las Casas underscored the Amerindians’ advanced “political states” and “architecture” to demonstrate that the Amerindians were not barbaric and indicate that the indigenous people had the capacity for rational thought and were “very ready to accept” Christianity.[33]. [2], The Requerimiento of 1512 served as a legal doctrine mandating that the Amerindians accept the Spanish monarch’s power over the region and Christianity. It helped to spur the conquest of the New World with its emphasis on missions to the indigenous peoples, controlled many aspects of the colonial economy, and played key roles in the struggles for Independence. Religious human rights, in the sense of freedom to exercise and practice one's religion, are almost universally guaranteed in the laws and constitutions of Latin America today, although they are not universally observed in practice. As a result, the Church tended to be rather conservative politically. However, this history – of Roman Catholicism in the United States – also includes the French and Spanish colonies, because they later became the greater … The slowness to embrace religious freedom in Latin America is related to its colonial heritage and to its post-colonial history. Many histories of Christianity give no more than a chapter to the history of Latin America. "[40], One theory is that the Virgin of Guadalupe was presented to the Aztecs as a sort of "Christianized" Tonantzin, necessary for the clergymen to convert the indigenous people to their faith. If we include the Latin West Indies, this amounts to about 185 million people. Follow Richard Palmer on Twitter, Copyright © The Mexican Revolution (1910–1920) represented a particular threat to the church, which … [11], During the colonial period, the Catholic missions also included efforts by the friars to educate the Amerindians. In Cuba, the Virgin named Caridad del Cobre was allegedly seen in the beginning of the 16th century, a case consigned in the Archivo General de Indias. Catholicism has been predominant in Latin America and it has played a definitive role in its development. The history of Mexican Catholicism between 1910 and 2010 was one of successive conflict and compromise with the state, latterly coupled with increased concern about religious pluralism, secularization, and divisions of both style and theological and ecclesiological substance within Catholicism. In May 17, 2016, Mexican president Enrique Peña Nieto, presented to congress a series of initiatives aimed at promoting greater inclusion and equality in defense of the LGBT community. [51][52] In an effort to prove that "God would not defend the Church", Calles ordered "hideous desecration of churches ... there were parodies of (church) services, nuns were raped and any priests captured ... were shot ...". The first missionaries arrived shortly after the fall of the Aztecs. However, in 1955, overthrown by a military general who was a leading member of the Catholic Nationalist movement. News of the 1534 apparition on Tepayac Hill spread quickly through Mexico; and in the seven years that followed, 1532 through 1538, the Indian people accepted the Spaniards and 8 million people were converted to the Catholic faith. Discontent over the provisions had been simmering for years. The Aztec and the Inca both made substantial use of religion to support their authority and power. The Latino/Latina or Hispanic Catholic presence spans the colonial era, the period of U.S. expansion during the 19th century, and the waves of new immigrants in the 20th and 21st centuries. As Hernán Cortés tore through the Aztec Empire, he was following a … [19][20][21] Over the next 150 years, missions expanded into southwestern North America. On the recommendation of the Inquisition, thousands of “heretics” throughout the continent were tortured until they died or confessed to charges they faced. Church properties were confiscated and basic civil and political rights were denied to religious institutes and the clergy. Under the patronato system, state authorities controlled clerical appointments and no direct contact was allowed with the Vatican. "Our Lady of Guadalupe. The reductions were created by the Catholic order of the Jesuits in South America, in areas inhabited by the Tupi-Guarani peoples, which generally corresponds to modern day Paraguay. [22] Native people were often legally defined as children, and priests took on a paternalistic role, sometimes enforced with corporal punishment. [27] Yet in spite of these advances, the Amerindian population continued to suffer decline from exposure to European diseases. [35] The Jesuit reductions present a controversial chapter of the evangelisational history of the Americas, and are variously described as jungle utopias or as theocratic regimes of terror.[34]. Catholicism has effected Latin America in that it has actually suppressed the violence within the Spanish controlled territories. Between 1926 and 1934 at least 40 priests were killed. Matovina, Timothy M. Latino Catholicism: Transformation in America’s Largest Church. [23], Junípero Serra, the Franciscan priest in charge of this effort, founded a series of missions which became important economic, political, and religious institutions. In comparison to Europe and other Western nations, the Catholic Church still has a major influence in Latin American society. They constructed huge churches, larger than many of the cathedrals in Europe. Pope Francis has embraced many elements of liberation theology, especially the dedication of the Church to the poor and marginalized. Archbishop Lázaro de la Garza in Mexico City condemned the Law as an attack on the Church itself, and clerics went into rebellion in the city of Puebla in 1855–56. One letter to the Spanish king in 1768 warned of the need for “constant vigilance to preserve suitable conduct and healthy principles of obedience and love for Your Majesty among the clergy.” Another, in 1789, stated that “the conduct of the people depends in large part on that of the clergy”; it said the best way of stopping a riot was not to call in the army, but rather “to station a friar with a holy crucifix in the nearest plaza.”. The Catholic faith of Latin America is one of the great trump cards of the Church, at least in theory. It was conceived of as a moderate measure, rather than abolish church courts altogether. Catholicism has been predominant in Latin America and it has played a definitive role in its development. or A good third of all Catholic Christians of this globe live between the Rio Grande and Fireland. In 1493, just one year after Columbus’s famous voyage, Pope Alexander VI published a bull dividing the new territory between Spain and Portugal—provided the natives were converted to Catholicism. This was the nation’s undoing. One cannot understand Latin America without understanding the history of the Catholic Church in the region. Missionaries attempted with varied success to convert Amerindians and enslaved Africans from their belief systems and to make Catholicism the only religion practiced in colonial Ibero-America. [29] The Dominicans favored “doctrinal preaching and philosophical argument with religious opponents” as their specific method of evangelization. Catholicism has been predominant in Latin America and it has played a definitive role in its development. Alfonsín's opposition to the church-military alliance, conjoined with his strongly secular emphasis contravening traditional Catholic positions, incited opposition that served to curtail his agenda. [12] Although the missionaries focused on the “conversion,” the friars also worked to educate the Amerindians about Spanish cultural expectations, social customs, and about “political organization through the mission system. This conference on progressive Catholicism in Latin America and Europe, organized on the occasion of the fiftieth anniversary of 1968, intends to investigate and cast new light on the transnational transfer of ideas and encounters between religious and secular progressive movements on both sides of the Atlantic during the period ranging from the 1950s to the 1980s. For centuries, the dominant religion found in Latin America has been Catholicism. It was thought that such would encourage development and the government could raise revenue by taxing the process. They ordered their expulsion from their lands, breaking the Jesuits’ power in Latin America. Contemporary reports say the Franciscans alone baptized 5 million—roughly 1 percent of the world population at the time—although these reports are impossible to verify. “The clergy provided many of the political and military leaders of the insurrection,” writes historian Paul Johnson. It has influenced the cultures of Latin America and made it illegal to go against the Catholic church (Chasteen, 49). Philadelphia Church of God, All Rights Reserved. But it now reigned in isolation, without the support of the crown, and so in turn has tended to fall victim to the violent anti-clericalism of the 19th and 20th centuries, until, quite recently, it has resumed its revolutionary role in defense of a new orthodoxy.”, E-mail A year later, Juan Diego was canonized by Pope John Paul II. Beckwith, Barbara. [17] Angelorum concludes that the Amerindians’ idols were a result of being “deceived by satanic wiles” and identifies preaching about the “Eternal Father” and spiritual “salvation” as the best means of evangelizing the Amerindians. The Jesuit Reductions were a particular version of the general Catholic strategy used in the 17th and 18th centuries of building reductions (reducciones de indios), in order to Christianize the indigenous populations of the Americas more efficiently. The Church controlled all aspects of life from birth, through marriage, until death. [15], In 1522, the first Franciscan missionaries arrived in Mexico, establishing schools, model farms and hospitals. In other cases, the appearance of the Virgin was reported by an indigenous person, for example, Virgen de los Angeles in Costa Rica. Conservative Catholics, asserting their role as definers of national values and morality, responded in part by joining in the rightist religio-political movement known as Catholic Nationalism which formed successive opposition parties. The History of the Catholic Church in Latin America offers a concise yet far-reaching … It was the clergy who drew up the first scheme for separation from Spain, in 1794, and provided most of the press propaganda. One of the driving forces of liberalism in the Roman Catholic Church was the council of bishops of Latin America, known by the acronym celam. [53] Calles was eventually deposed[53] and despite the persecution, the Church in Mexico continued to grow. In the later part of the 20th century, however, the rise of Liberation theology has challenged such close alliances between church and state. The Law also stated that the Church could not gain possession of properties in the future. [39] Mary O'Connor writes that Guadalupe "bring[s] together people of distinct cultural heritages, while at the same time affirming their distinctness. He argued that the Spanish colonists’ should avoid continuing to make harsh labor demands of Amerindians by noting how the native people did “not even have time to look after their subsistence” and would “die of hunger.”[31], Bartolome de Las Casas, another famed Dominican friar, also defended the Amerindians' rights and opposed the Spaniards’ view of the indigenous people as “barbarians” as an acceptable justification to massacre the indigenous population. Using historical chronology, this essay reviews the growing body of literature produced by scholars who chose religion as a lens through which to view the history of Latin America. Latin America is home to more than 425 million Catholics – nearly 40% of the world’s total Catholic population – and the Roman Catholic Church now has a Latin American pope for the first time in its history. [45] The Constitution of 1857 retained many of the Roman Catholic Church's Colonial era privileges and revenues, but, unlike the earlier constitution, did not mandate that the Catholic Church be the nation's exclusive religion, and strongly restricted the Church's right to own property. Relations of the Roman Catholic Church with the … The conflict claimed the lives of some 90,000: 56,882 on the federal side, 30,000 Cristeros, and numerous civilians and Cristeros who were killed in anticlerical raids after the war's end. Elizondo, Virgil. The Jesuits took this to an even higher level in South America, where hundreds of thousands lived in Jesuit-run autonomous colonies, complete with their own Jesuit armies. Its influence could be seen in the continuing prohibition, almost everywhere, of abortion and in the tendency to play down official support (which nevertheless existed) for birth control campaigns. They were active politically throughout Spanish America, but in Mexico they also provided the military leadership” (A History of Christianity). In most of the region there emerged a“conservative” reaction against the dominant liberal tide.Though liberals and conservatives shared some political ground, theyheld opposing views regarding the pace of social change and the placeof Catholicism and of the Catholic Church in society. The history of Roman Catholicism in the United States – prior to 1776 – often focuses on the 13 English-speaking colonies along the Atlantic seaboard, as it was they who declared independence from Great Britain in 1776, to form the United States of America. Source for information on Catholicism in the Americas: Encyclopedia of African-American Culture and History dictionary. Richard Palmer “Priests persuaded their entire parishes to ‘pronounce’ for the revolution. St. Anthony Messenger Magazine Online. In Andean America, the expansion and formation of institutional religions first emerged alongside the foundation of Cuzco and the dawning of the Inca Empire. E-mail Citation » Historical and contemporary analysis of major trends in Latino Catholicism, including key leaders, organizations, and events in Hispanic ministry. [63] Both Pope John Paul II and Pope Benedict XVI (as Cardinal Ratzinger) denounced the movement. Critically, it wants to assess the role of … Historical data suggest that for most of the 20th century, from 1900 through the 1960s, at least 90% of Latin America’s population was Catholic (See History … The Church supported the regime of Juárez's successor, Porfirio Diaz, who was opposed to land reform. 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