Religious Pluralism, Democracy, and the Catholic Church in Latin America

9 Religion and Public Spaces Catholicism and Civil Society in Peru

365 9 Religion and Public Spaces Catholicism and Civil Society in Peru catalina romero This chapter presents some reflections on the influence of religion on politics, and specifically on the process of democratization and the quality of democracy in Latin America—with a focus on Peru—in the context of the new religious pluralism. By religious pluralism I mean not only a pluralism of religions, or an interreligious pluralism, but also religious diversity within religions, or internal pluralism. Of particular interest is how this internal diversity relates to the state, political society, and civil­ society—that is to say, with public space—during a period of democra­ tization. Internal pluralism within religion is nothing new. Catholicism and other Christian churches (Troelsch 1960; Weber 1978) are organized in such a way that presupposes a complexity based on the aspiration to be universal and to integrate different groups within a single religious entity. But the interesting question to ask today is how this pluralism within and among religions affects the contemporary quality of democracy. In the case of Catholicism we are not dealing with a traditional church that is trying to relate to a modern, plural, and dynamic society in the sense that Dahl meant when speaking of polyarchy (Dahl 1971). Rather, what we have, on the one hand, is a plural church with different positions on how to act in the distinct public spaces that are opening up with the exercise of ­ democracy 366 | Catalina Romero and, on the other hand, societies organized on corporatist, vertical, and exclusionary bases that are trying to democratize and build democratic governments while confronting serious challenges in defining democratic public spaces (Mainwaring and Pérez Liñán 2002; Levine and Molina 2007; Romero 2007; UNDP 2006b; Latinobarómetro 2006). The concept of civil society, as applied to Latin America, refers to the new public space for social action that is analytically separable from the state but that is connected to it, thereby forming a complex whole. That is to say, there can be no civil society without the state, nor can there be a state without civil society: they are two sides of the same coin. This new understanding cannot be reduced to the old liberal notion that this space contains society’s economic dynamism and social classes seeking to expand the scope of the private in relation to the state. The sense in which I use the concept of civil society corresponds more closely to the way in which de Tocqueville used it to refer to the associational dynamic present in U.S. society in the nineteenth century—a dynamic distinguished by the value citizens placed on associating to resolve problems within an established legal framework. Of course, Latin America does not resemble the American society that de Tocqueville knew and analyzed. In Central and South America, great civilizations that survived the Iberian conquest were reorganized into a colonial society, with new monarchical institutions imposed on them. Today, despite the nearly two centuries that have elapsed since the founding of the new, independent republics, gross inequality—principally economic but also cultural and political—remains a great obstacle to constructing democratic institutions. Toward a Conceptual Framework The contemporary meaning of the concept of civil society in Latin America is bound up with the value of personal initiative and the associations that are formed among self-proclaimed equals in order to affirm their rights as human beings and live a decent life, while maintaining their identities and differences. This dynamic is nourished as much with regard to traditional values as it is in the contemporary democratic practices of electing and alternating authorities, participating in assemblies, and mak- Religion and Public Spaces | 367 ing decisions and in the daily interactions among equals. Citizens seeking spaces for dialogue, consensus building, and participation come together in civil society to demand from the state and social institutions a greater integration and recognition of rights. In this context, the Catholic Church in Latin America has played a crucial and novel role in what has become known as the “third wave of de­ mocratization” by stimulating and supporting the formation of a civil society in the region (Casanova 2001; Romero 1989). In observing that Catholicism exercised this same influence in the democratization of countries on other continents where Catholicism was a minority religion, Casanova stresses the importance of internal change within Catholicism itself: “it was a Catho­ lic wave not...