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Religion, Politics and Law in 19th Century Latin America

When revolutions for independence broke istic one: The origin of power resided in the out, religious life in the Spanish American world societies themselves. This would necessarily lead was ruled by the Indian patronage regime [pa- to a de-sacralisation of the concept of »citizen«, tronato], which gave the monarch tight control which throughout the 19th century would lose over ecclesiastical institutions. Patronage in- the religious features that the »subject« category cluded, among many other prerogatives, pre- used to have. On the other hand, since the senting candidates to the pope, appointing par- Bourbons had insisted that patronage was an ish priests and doctrine teachers, the right to indisputable component of sovereignty, the new allow or deny the dissemination of council and republics could not renounce it. This implied a pontifical documents (exequatur), and control- myriad of political-legal problems: was this a ling tithes. The right to patronage had multiple prerogative to be enjoyed exclusively by the king origins: the initial pontifical concession, support and queen of Spain or by anyone who exercised for the churches, and its alleged inherence in sovereign power? Which of the new authorities sovereignty. In the 18th century, however, the created to substitute the Spanish ones should idea that patronage was an attribute of the exercise it? How did the division of powers fit sovereigninitsownrighthadbecomeanalmost in its exercise? Should it be used by the legislative indisputable opinion. or the executive branch, or by both? In addition, If the church is regarded as an institution controversies between centralists and federalists with relative autonomy and a hierarchical struc- focused on whether patronage should be exer- ture of obedience with the pope as its head, it cised by provinces, by central governments, or may be stated that the church as such did not by both, with different scopes and powers. exist in the Spanish colonies and that it was These were not the only new problems in formed, not without difficulty, only throughout which religion had decisive or significant weight. the 19th century. In colonial times, ecclesiastical In the colonial era, the political community was institutions were so indissolubly intertwined conceived as a portion of the Catholic flock ruled with civil institutions that they may well be by the king of Spain; therefore, any issues as- considered a segment of Indian bureaucracy. sociated with the church affected society as a Bishops and prelates had to account for their whole, and dismantling the old order in any administrative actions to the crown and no brick manner entailed a reform of ecclesiastical insti- could be laid over another to build a church, tutions. It should also be recalled that the juxta- hospital or hermitage without royal authorisa- position between civil law and canon law placed tion. The religious sword and the secular sword important aspects of the civil life of citizens were two distinct but inseparable powers. under ecclesiastical jurisdiction. On the other Revolutions transformed the concept of sov- hand, revolutions broke out proclaiming the ereignty by replacing its pluralistic, composite defence of »the religion of our forefathers«. It definition, typical of the Old Regime, by a mon- is correct to state that the legitimacy of religion Debatte Roberto Di Stefano 118

could not be done away with, but this could debacle, Rome revived keen to take control over be understood as excessively pragmatic; it is all the churches in the Catholic world, be they more accurate to affirm no one actually thought churches it had once controlled or those that had power was dissociated from religion. In the never actually been under its aegis, such as those first half of the 19th century no one believed of the Spanish Americas. Hence the centralising societal reproduction could be possible outside work that the new republics were forced to the framework of collective morality based on conduct in the religious field, as well as in other religion. spheres, coincided in different issues with Ro- The root of the problem was what to do with man policy. The difference lay in the fact that religion, what place religion should be given in a Rome was unwilling to acknowledge the right to new order that required the reform of its insti- patronage as inherent in sovereignty: It intended tutions while keeping faith intact. It could not to negociate each agreement that would grant continue being the cornerstone of the social ex novo, as a gracious papal concession, certain edifice, the material cementing the bodies that carefully stipulated powers of patronage. made up society. How could the inherited reli- Hence, the discussion did not focus on the gious unanimity be reconciled with the idea of advisability to reform the church by centralising freedom of conscience, a key component of nu- it or not, but on who would control the insti- merous revolutionary speeches? The creation of tution emerging from this process. The power a relatively autonomous political sphere neces- struggle between followers of Roman policies sarily implied the creation of a truly religious and advocates of patronage law as inherent in sphere, nonexistent in the colonial regime. It sovereignty brought about two ways of con- implied modifying a traditional mental universe sidering relations between church and state in that foresaw the presence of religion not within a Spanish America: one of Gallican roots, contrary sphere but in all expressions of social life. In the to the Pope’s claims, and an intransigent one, institutional realm, it implied creating a rather which endorsed such claims. This debate went centralised structure to manage the new religious on throughout the 19th century, in some coun- sphere, instead of the plurality of powers and tries more violently than in others, as to whether overlapping jurisdictions that was so typical of patronage was inherent in sovereignty or rather the old order. the fruit of papal concession. In the 1820s a third Another problem: Could ecclesiastical insti- position began to surface between these two: tutions be reformed without the involvement of inspired in liberal ideas, this approach focused the pope? As a result of patronage, Spanish on the right to freedom of conscience, placing American churches had only had occasional the church’s plan of action within the emerging direct communication with the Holy See. After civil society and claiming the state’s neutrality in the revolutions, the possibility of establishing religious issues. In other words, it defended the communication became more complicated, both idea of freedom and equality for all faiths. These as a result of the papal condemnation of the three models outlined in the first half of the 19th uprising and of the Spanish diplomatic policy century express lines of thought; they are not pressing the pope to refrain from receiving the categories into which people may be classified. insurgent emissaries. But, after the revolutionary Features of one or the other may be found within Rg16/2010 Religion, Politics and Law in 19th Century Latin America 119 the opinions of one person: Men with moderate vestment, especially those coming from Protes- liberal convictions may defend liberty, but not an tant Europe. equality of the faiths; that is to say, they may How could these projects be reconciled with propose a place of privilege for Catholicism as the intention to maintain the patronage regime the official creed while at the same time defend- and proclaim Catholicism as the official religion ing plurality in the religious field. Even elements of the State? Conflicts over the constitutional from different models could be combined, as we models to be applied followed a number of roads shall see, in one constitution. and gave rise to different options and compro- The liberal contention seemed useful to ad- mise solutions. One example, among others, is dress another key issue in revolutions, such as the Argentine constitution of 1853, the basis of immigration and capital movement. In general, the one currently in force, which forced the State the countries that emerged from the debacle of to »support« the Catholic faith and guarantee the Spanish Empire – after fifteen years of war – freedom of religion, while at the same time it did so in hardship. Colonial jurisdictions had provided for the manner in which patronage fragmented, commercial routes had dismantled, should be exercised; the Holy See, however, re- the control of business was in the hands of fused to recognise such patronage as an inalien- English merchants in many cases, fiscal funds able right. were depleted, tax collection was difficult and Ultimately, the question at issue was what the violence of revolutionary fighting persisted path to choose that would lead to secularisation, with internecine wars. Spanish American elites adaptation of religion and its institutions to the wished to insert their countries in the capitalist transformations usually associated with the idea market that expanded under the leadership of of modernity: creation and separation of the Great Britain but found a stumbling block in religious and secular spheres – politics, science, the lack of infrastructure, capital, technology, arts –, development of the state and the market, specialised workers and know-how. A solution loss of power by the religious authority outside to the problem of building a nation could only its own sphere. Secularisation is not the progres- be found in Europe, but not all over it: The sive disappearance of religion, but its constant widespread idea that the differences between adaptation to structural and cultural changes Protestantism and Catholicism turned the for- brought about by modernity. But it is also a mer functional to capitalist development and task: In the mid-19th century, the conflict be- made the latter resistant to it raised the issue of tween liberalism and masonry on the one hand, diversification in the religious field. The problem and the Catholic Church on the other, became existed already, especially in port cities con- stronger, especially since Pius IX, terrified by the necting ocean routes – Veracruz, Rio de Janeiro, 1848–1849 revolutions, abandoned his initial Montevideo, Buenos Aires, Valparaiso, El Ca- reform program, which had created illusions in llao, Acapulco, Mazatlan –, where immigration many Catholic thinkers of liberal linking, to had brought together small but influential for- return to safer defensive positions. eign communities. Facing the future, it was In the 1870s secularisation as a task adopted deemed appropriate to establish constitutional the form of struggle for laicism, understood as orders encouraging immigration and foreign in- the absorption by the state of institutions and Debatte Roberto Di Stefano 120

functions previously controlled by the religious commendable concern for peaceful solutions to authority. Thus, cemeteries, civil registries, edu- the social conflict. cation and health care were secularised in differ- In the midst of these dilemmas, Spanish ent countries. In Latin America, secularisation American countries and churches celebrated the processes were very diverse, but in general they first centennial of their revolutions of Independ- were based on the one being applied by the Third ence. After World War I, various factors – the Republic in France and many of them adopted crisis of liberalism and positivism, the incidence a strong positivist imprint. Faith in the mother- of spiritualist trends, concerns for national iden- land and in science was sometimes proposed as tity and social conflicts – tended, with the nota- a complement and at other times as an alterna- ble exception of Mexico, to strengthen the power tive to traditional religion. Some of these secu- of Catholicism in the public life of Spanish larisation processes extended to the first decades America, at least when compared to the power of the 20th century and became more radical. it had been granted during the secularisation era The reasons behind this should not necessarily by the end of 19th century. The conciseness of be found in the strength or economic significance this brief essay does not allow for further con- of the Catholic Churches opposing the secular- sideration of the whole 20th century. Let us just isation process. Mexico and Uruguay are two add that in Latin American life, the permeability examples of radical secularisation – extremely between religion and politics as well as the violent in the case of Mexico – to the detriment conflicts around it determine long-lasting and of churches that were incomparable as to their complex features which are not simple to ex- political, economic, social and cultural power. plain. Naturally the legal status of religion has Other secularisation processes were moderate changed dramatically since 1810, and the re- and incomplete, as in the case of Argentina. ligious field has largely diversified, but the re- Here, fears by the elite facing the »social issue« lations between religious institutions and the and »maximalism« and, more generally, facing political power continue to be an unresolved a flood of immigrants capable of definitely dis- problem giving rise to controversy and conflicts. solving the already weak »national identity« at Everything leads to the belief that structural times when cultural nationalism pervaded the deficiencies in Latin American countries and ideological atmosphere in the West, advised in their recurrent economic and political crises, favour of bringing the secularisation process to combined with long-standing cultural character- an end by the late 19th century. In short, an istics, have made it difficult so far to find a overwhelming majority of the immigrants arriv- relation between religion and society that is both ing in the country were Catholic in name and harmonic and satisfactory for most actors. there was nothing to be gained from new clashes with the church, led by Leo XIII and expressing Roberto Di Stefano Rg16/2010 Religion, Politics and Law in 19th Century Latin America