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Leftist Christians in Chile, 1957-1973

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Leftist Christians in Chile, 1957-1973 Blessing the Revolution: Leftist Christians in Chile, 1957-1973 A dissertation submitted by Luz María Díaz de Valdés in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy in History Tufts University May 2018 Adviser: Peter Winn ABSTRACT This work analyzes the emergence and development of a leftist Christianity in Chile, concentrating in the experience of a clerical group called “Christians for Socialism” (Cristianos por el Socialismo, CpS). This analysis transcends Chilean frontiers, trying to understand the broader political radicalization the Catholic Church lived in the late 1960s. The Chilean experience, however, had its own originality: revolutionary priests emerged in the middle of Popular Unity project, a process of building socialism by democratic means in a Cold War context. From an experiential point of view, this work analyzes the emergence of Christians for Socialism highlighting the religious evolution that some churchmen and churchwomen experienced. This work understands Christians for Socialism as a final stage of a long-term religious evolution, that could be summarized in three elements: a new conception of a Catholic social change; a new phase for social ministry; and new meanings of poverty and the poor. This work also illuminates the comprehension of leftist Christianity as a global phenomenon. This is a history of a vast network of Catholic clerical agents that in a Cold War global context, laid the foundations for a deep social change in Latin America. This is a history of the convergence between Catholicism and the social sciences from the late Fifties on in Latin America, its underdevelopment and poverty. But also, this is a study of the personal dilemma that some pastoral agents experienced, mainly related to the way in which they understood their temporal and spiritual mission. This study understands the re- adaptation of the fields of religion and politics and, specifically, to a re-adaptation of the role i of priests in modern world. This study, finally, digs deep into the experience of some pastoral agents with the poor. These experiences, in some cases, triggered a new conception of their pastoral role, and finally of the temporal role of the Catholic Church as well. The subsequent temporal commitments, with some revolutionary projects or paths, responded to this internal process. ii ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS To Peter Winn, who wisely guided me through this long and many times lonely process. To Sol Serrano, who has been a constant source of advice and support since I was an undergraduate student. To my parents and grandparents who lovingly encouraged and accompanied me all these years. To my three little girls, Juana, Luz and Sofía, who were and are my source of love, strength and perseverance. Specially, to Juan Carlos, my life partner. This work is dedicated to them. iii TABLE OF CONTENTS ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS iii INTRODUCTION 1 I. POLITICS, ECONOMY AND SOCIETY IN CHILE, 1932-1973 1. 1930 a 1960: Three decades of urban, industrial, and political development 23 2. Two paths: ¿reform or revolution? 26 3. The Chilean Road to Socialism 32 II. CATHOLICISM AND MODERNITY (XIXTH AND XXTH CENTURY) 1. Social Catholicism: origins and development 39 2. The Catholics’ Political Paths 42 3. The Second Vatican Council: The Church in the contemporary world 46 III. CATHOLICISM AND SOCIAL CHANGE 1. Apostles of development 49 2. A Church “embodied” in the poor 59 3. 1962: A Christian Revolution 71 IV. TIME OF CONTROVERSIES 1. Marxism on the horizon 84 2. New searches in the clergy 91 3. August 11, 1968: “For a Church with the people and their struggles” 96 iv V. TAKING COMMUNION WITH ALLENDE 1. April 16, 1971 110 2. “What is happening to you? … How come you have changed so much?” 122 3. A religious-political debate in Chilean civil society 132 VI. BEYOND CHILE 1. Comrade Fidel 142 2. The Christians for Socialism’s Latin American Meeting 151 3. The Cardinal’s annoyance 159 4. The onslaught against Christians for Socialism 168 VII. RADICALIZATION OF A POLITICO-RELIGIOUS CONFLICT 1. The two souls of the CpS 176 2. The time has come to fight 186 3. The end of CpS 200 EPILOGUE: NEW PATHS FOR LEFTIST CHRISTIANS 208 BIBLIOGRAPHY 216 v INTRODUCTION Film Ya no basta con rezar, 1972 1 It Is No Longer Enough To Pray Ya no basta con rezar (It Is No Longer Enough To Pray) was the title of a film made in 1971 by Chilean director Aldo Francia and presented at the Cannes Film Festival in May 1973. The poster for the film shows a priest – Father Jaime – dressed as a clergyman, displaying a cross on his lapel and holding a stone in his fist 2. That was the movie’s final scene. In the middle of a street protest, Father Jaime was seen facing the police and throwing a stone against the façade of Valparaiso’s Courthouse. It was for the priest a sign of his Christian commitment with the workers’ cause. The film showed Father Jaime’s personal journey, with his inner conflicts and misgivings and highlighted, as the Jesuit magazine Mensaje suggested, the reality of the so-called “new priests” and the controversy they ignited in the Catholic world 3. 1 In April of that same year (1971), a group of eighty priests gathered in the southern zone of Santiago, an area characterized by its urban poverty and where many of them lived and carried out their social ministry. Those eighty priests organized a day of reflection about what should be the role of Christians in the building of socialism that the government of the newly elected president of the Republic, Salvador Allende, had vowed to carry out. The statement handed to the press after the meeting, commonly known as the “Declaración de los 80” (“The Declaration of the 80”), was telling. “As Christians, we don’t see any incompatibility between Christianity and socialism. Quite the opposite […] socialism gives people hope by allowing individuals to be more whole and thus more religious […] We feel committed to this ongoing process and want to contribute to its success. The deep-seated reason for this engagement is our faith in Jesus Christ, which deepens, renews itself and takes shape according to historical circumstances. To be Christian is to be caring. To be caring now in Chile is to participate in the historical project drawn up by its people […] In this hour full of risks but also hope, it is appropriate for us, just like any other Christian, to humbly do our part”4. This declaration was issued in the midst of an extremely polarized social and political climate in Chile, in which different models of society were pitted against each other. The public shock around this declaration took enormous proportions, so much so that not even “the 80” themselves were able to foresee or by no means control it. “The 80’s Declaration” was published in the main newspapers in Chile and abroad, and unleashed a series of responses for and against by bishops, priests, theologians and laymen. First, the declaration worried the Chilean episcopate, considered, within the Latin American context, as one of the most advanced in terms of social concerns. To this was added the fact that, up to that moment, the Archbishop of Santiago, Cardinal Raúl Silva Henríquez, had maintained good relations with the elected president Salvador Allende and that the Episcopal Conference of Chile (CECH) had expressed its intention of maintaining political neutrality towards the government’s project of implementing socialism. In the same way, the “Declaration” of the 80 surprised the Catholic sectors deemed progressive in the social area and reformists in the political sphere, mainly associated with the Christian Democratic Party 5. Finally, the text aggravated and provoked the right-wing and conservative Catholic organizations, like the Chilean Society for the Defense of Tradition, Family and Property (TFP) –founded in 1963– which, from the beginning of the 1960s, had predicted the Catholic Church’s destruction at the hands of the Christian-Marxists and 2 the so-called “revolutionary priests” 6. The “Declaration of the 80” caused commotion and notoriety amid a complicated socio-political context in which the relationships between the Church and the government were of the utmost importance. This declaration thus came along and forced participants to clarify arguments and call for new politico-ideological definitions, in the process causing a profound crisis within the Chilean Catholic Church 7. Shortly afterwards, the original “80” decided to found a movement called “Christians for Socialism” (CpS), a small priestly group. The registered members numbered three hundred, but what is certain is that the most visible, active and militant group counted no more than about twenty priests 8. CpS was mainly made up of clerical representatives living in the marginal urban settlements of Santiago, Valparaíso, Concepción and Temuco. There were Chileans and foreigners as well. Many of the CpS had been advisors to the Catholic Action movements, mainly in the workplace and at university. The majority of the CpS had a rich intellectual and theological formation and some were in the vanguard of the social thinking of the time. They were known as the “expert priests”. Some of the CpS, a minority, was au fait with the Marxist theory, imbued with its literature and closely following the European Marxist-Christian discussions 9. The CpS were neither inspired by the Marxist-Leninist rhetoric, nor the Soviet totalitarian experience and, on the domestic front, were taking their distances from the traditional Chilean left-wing political parties, mainly the Communist and Socialist parties. A great many of them had only read some texts by the Chilean sociologist Marta Harnecker, disciple of Louis Althusser, who translated complex Marxist texts into an easy and didactic language 10 .
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