Catholic Church in Chile

Relations between Church and state were complicated during the Socialist presidency of Salvador Allende (November 1970 − September 1973). While Allende and the state refrained from attacking the Church, the majority of the Catholic hierarchs in Chile were either ideologically opposed to Allende and his socialist program or cautious of open clerical involvement in politics.[5] However, a vocal minority of priests, followers and participants of liberation theology, were supporters of the government. On April 16, 1971, a group of these priests, "The 80", released a declaration advocating for Catholics to actively participate in Allende's cause and the socialist program.[6] The 80 would subsequently form the organization Christians for Socialism. Other Catholic organizations were also a part of Allende's Popular Unity coalition, including the Christian Left and MAPU, which split off from the more centrist Christian Democratic Party. Previously, Catholic involvement in Chilean politics had been represented primarily by the Christian Democratic Party, which as a political organization was institutionally separate from the Church.[5] In 1972, twelve members of Christians for Socialism were invited to visit Cuba by Fidel Castro, while there they spoke in support of socialist revolution.[5] In April of that year, Christians for Socialism held a First Latin American Congress of Christians for Socialism in the city of Santiago; its focus was reflection on the activities of Christians who practiced liberation theology in Latin America.[7] It was attended by laypeople, clergy, and the sole hierarch to participate, Mexican bishop Sergio Méndez Arceo.[7] The Archbishop of Santiago, Cardinal Raúl Silva Henríquez, was invited but turned down the invitation because he believed Christians for Socialism was trying to push the Church into supporting communist revolution.[5] Also in April, following the conference, the Chilean bishops issued two statements, one rebuking the statement of the twelve who went to Cuba, and the other treading a middle ground between respect for Allende and affirming his legitimacy, while maintaining a nominally apolitical stance and that Marxism was inconsistent with Catholicism.[5][6]

During the Allende administration and immediately preceding it, supportive elements of the Chilean Catholic Church did not limit themselves to declarations of solidarity with the poor or the government—they also performed it through material acts. During this time, some nuns and priests were already living and working with the poor (as a result of evangelization efforts undertaken by the Church to address the widespread lack of clergy across Latin America or through their own volition) in order to better serve the people and understand their reality; one example took the form of Father Ignacio Pujadas, who formed a Christian Base Community in his neighborhood and was later a founding member of Christians for Socialism.[7] Other groups of organizations such as Catholic Action and the Catholic Student Youth were already working towards similar goals as Christians for Socialism.[7] Parts of the Church also voluntarily aided the Allende government: in 1971, the Society of the Sacred Heart gave the Chilean government some of its private high schools, and the Congregation of the Holy Cross raised tuition for rich students in their Santiago school to fund scholarships for poor students, both in accordance with Allende's project of increasing educational access.[5]

Under the military dictatorship of Augusto Pinochet, the relationship between Church and state became more adversarial. Most Catholic bishops and priests supported the regime initially, and the hierarchy formally condemned Christians for Socialism following the coup.[5] However, by 1976, the dictatorship had lost the approval of the Catholic Church with the exception of the Military Vicariate, which continued to openly support the dictatorship and supplied theological justification for the coup to the troops.[8] That year, under the leadership of the Archbishop of Santiago, Cardinal Raúl Silva Henríquez, the Church set up the Vicariate of Solidarity, a human rights organization where "everyone went for help once their loved ones vanished."[9] The Vicariate of Solidarity gathered documentation of human rights violations and disappeared individuals, which was later used as evidence in truth commissions and court cases after the dictatorship.[8][9] The Vicariate also provided support to victims and their friends and relations, circulated a confidential newsletter, and served as a sheltering organization for other opponents of Pinochet's regime.[8] The Vicariate of Solidarity undertook more socially oriented projects as well, sponsoring creators of arpilleras, as well as the selling and exhibition of their work, and also it established soup kitchens and a clinic.[10] The Vicariate was the successor to the Committee of Cooperation for Peace in Chile, founded by a collaboration between Archbishop Henriquez and other religious leaders on October 6, 1973. Despite being an ecumenical organization, the Committee's leadership was extensively drawn from the Catholic Church in Santiago.[10] The Committee filled a similar role to the later Vicariate, but as it merely had Catholic participation, it lacked the degree of respect and protection which the Vicariate would later enjoy as part of the Church structure, operating out of Church offices.[10] The Committee was shut down in November of 1975 under threat of force from the junta, having been described by Pinochet as a vector of Marxist-Leninist subversion.[10]

The legacy of Christians for Socialism, which the dictatorship had also suppressed, contributed to the Catholic Church's stance against the dictatorship and increasing involvement with the poor.[7] As well, Christian Base Communities had a role in facilitating the widespread protests in Chile that began on May 11, 1983, and continued throughout the decade.[10] Individual priests also played significant roles during the dictatorship, notably Father Pierre DuBois and Father André Jarlan, who worked together in the parish house of the La Victoria población where Jarlan was killed by police who fired at the building on September 4, 1984.[11] Jarlan became a figure of national significance during the 1980s and even after his memory faded in the 1990s, he remained significant in La Victoria. Jarlan's image as a priest of the people was an example of the influence of liberationist Catholicism during the dictatorship.[11]