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IN THE YEARS SINCE THE 1990 Chilean transition to democracy, the Catholic Church has faced several challenges to its political power. Traditionally , the Church has adopted the corporatist approach promoted by Pope Leo XIII’s Rerum Novarum by aligning itself with Chilean political and economic elites, just as the Church has done throughout the world—also discussed in this volume by Ferrari in chapter 2, Manuel and Mott in chapter 3, and Kearney in chapter 9. These alliances, coupled with a considerable popular base of adherents , have rendered the Church a key player in politics far beyond its separate legal status. However, under the current wave of democratization, the Church has faced a steady erosion of its traditional power base. Religious freedom laws and increasing religious pluralism have challenged Catholic hegemony in Chile, as well as throughout Latin America. And yet the Chilean Church has demonstrated remarkable resilience in pressing its political agenda, particularly in the realm of public policy. Most notable is the Church’s success at delaying the legalization of civil divorce. Although a sizable majority of Chileans and their political leaders have supported the legalization of divorce for some time, the Church led a successful conservative coalition that delayed the initiative, finally losing the battle when a new divorce law was adopted in May 2004.1 Even at the end, however, the Church could claim a modicum of success as it managed to temper the final legislation by adding marriage counseling provisions before a divorce could become final. What accounts for the Church’s relative success in this case, given its declining hegemony? To answer this question, this chapter examines the historical role of the Chilean Church, with particular emphasis on the challenges democratization has posed for the Church’s power. It will examine the Church’s responses to these challenges, focusing on the mechanisms it has employed to promote its public policy goals. 89 The Chilean Church: Declining Hegemony? William Lies, C.S.C., and Mary Fran T. Malone Chapter 5 90 The Challenge of Secularization Historical Overview of Church–State Relations in Chile The proper role of the Roman Catholic Church in Chilean society has been intensely debated since the very birth of the nation in 1818, when it won its independence from Spain. Indeed, the debate over church–state relations differentiated the platforms of the original political parties.2 The Conservative Party championed the Chilean Church’s central role in defending the social order of the previous colonial era, striving to preserve the Church’s control over the educational system, as well as the confirmation and recording of births, marriages, and deaths. The Liberal and Radical parties, conversely, sought a more secular order. They called for the separation of church and state, demanding that the newly independent government assume primary responsibility for education and guard its jurisdiction over civil matters. The Liberals and Radicals drew on the ideals of the Enlightenment and promoted the liberal doctrine of political rights and citizenship . Gaining in power and popularity in the second half of the nineteenth century, the Liberals succeeded in expanding the authority of the state over that of the church. The official separation of church and state, however, was not achieved until the adoption of the 1925 Constitution. Despite this official separation , the Chilean Church involved itself in politics in a variety of ways and with varied intensity throughout the last century. Through the first half of the twentieth century, Vatican directives increasingly put pressure on the Church’s traditional alliance with more conservative parties. Papal encyclicals such as Rerum Novarum (1891) and Quadragesimo Anno (1931) encouraged bishops, priests, and Catholic laity to adopt more progressive social teachings. Church leaders devoted more attention to the rights of workers and the plight of the poor. Such a focus was both biblically derived and politically useful, as the Chilean Church sought to mollify a growing atheistic Marxist political movement by articulating a Catholic vision of social justice and human rights. As social justice and reform issues dominated their political agenda, the Chilean Church shifted its allegiance to the Christian Democratic Party of Chile (Partido Demócrata Cristiano de Chile, or PDC). Inspired and guided by Catholic social teaching, this party emerged in 1957 to occupy the center of the political spectrum and became a major political force. The political power of the Christian Democrats grew rapidly with the Church’s support, especially among women and rural voters. By 1964, the PDC won the presidency with their candidate...

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