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10 Current Evolution of Relations between Religion and Politics in Haiti LAËNNEC HURBON Sociological research on religion and politics in Haiti usually takes into consideration only the Catholic Church because it is the most visible, best known, and dominant system of worship. However, Protestantism and Vodou are as important as Catholicism in the Haitian political field. Protestantism, with its innumerable religious denominations, is reaching not only the popular classes of the suburbs but also the peasantry, with the result that Catholicism sometimes seems to be practiced by a minority. Vodou, often the first thing that comes to mind when Haiti is mentioned, is the set of practices and beliefs that have the deepest influence on the daily life of the Haitian people. It is no simple matter to speak about religion and politics in Haiti. To understand the current evolution of relations between religion and politics in Haiti we need to look at two key moments: the point where Catholicism, Protestantism, and Vodou broke with the Duvalier dictatorship and the point at which the Catholic Church withdrew from politics in general and from the popularly based democratic movement in particular. At both points the democratic experience modified the status of each religious system and introduced or, if you like, revealed a deep cultural crisis in Haitian society. RELIGION AND THE COLLAPSE OF THE DUVALIER DICTATORSHIP During the early 1980s the Haitian Conference of Religious opposed the Duvalier dictatorship when political parties were banned. As the dominant religious institution in Haiti since the Concordat of 1860, the Catholic Church assumed a leadership role in the struggle to overthrow the dictatorship.1 The Church’s political opposition to Duvalier represented a radical change from its traditional pastoral role, which had revolved around an anti-Vodou strategy for at least a century. From the 1970s on, the Church had begun to link social development to evangelization. Up to that time, the Church had been the place where the social and cultural divide in Haitian society had found its ideological justification . The principal characteristic of Haitian society was a kind of social apartheid derived from slavery, which kept the majority of the people deprived of rights. In this context, the Church guarded its own privileges, interests, and power. In contrast, popular Catholic practice rested on a vision of the Church as a foreign institution, one that permitted access to the symbols of the civilized world, in opposition to Vodou, which represented the roots of a particular national culture. 119 Current Evolution of Relations between Religion and Politics in Haiti Following the Second Vatican Council, the language of the Haitian popular classes could be incorporated into church liturgy. Creole, the vernacular language , was used, and the rhythms of Vodou ceremonies were brought into Catholic songs so that people would feel at home in church. The creolization of the liturgy meant that the popular classes could participate in church for the first time since the age of slavery. The consequences were enormous: the Episcopal Conference was obliged to take the experiences of the popular classes and the peasantry into account, including problems of civil rights, health, access to schools, poverty, and more. People were no longer considered objects of charity and compassion, and they started to feel responsible for their own political destinies . However, this liberation only appeared within the Church, because only there could Haitians claim their rights and realize what Michel de Certeau calls la prise de parole. Christianity was no longer a religion from abroad; it would henceforth be appropriated and reworked in accordance with the perspectives and interests of the popular classes. This would mean, in turn, that the Catholic hierarchy would lose its authority. By the time the Duvalier regime became aware of the shift, it was too late. The people were ready to face the dictatorship. What is known today as dechoukaj (uprooting) is the direct result of this mental and symbolic preparation inside the Church. This is the originality of the social and political movement in Haiti during the 1980s. Protestantism and Vodou already were closer to the experiences lived by the people. However, the new orientation of the Catholic Church was more focused on politics, particularly because the theology of liberation inspired the pastoral practice of many priests and religious. This pastoral practice had an important impact on Protestantism and Vodou. How was this possible? I don’t know if one can observe the same phenomenon in Brazil or in Latin America with the...

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