The Catholic Social Imagination: Activism and the Just Society in Mexico and the United States (review)

How does a religious tradition, characterized by hierarchical authority and doctrinal tightening, translate into strikingly different initiatives for social justice in two neighboring countries? This is the provocative question that Palacios addresses by comparing the history, institutional structures and cultural meanings of the Catholic social imagination in Mexico and the United States. Conceptually, the Catholic social imagination is a "bounded cultural space" (5) defined by the strategic and normative orientations of theological doctrine but shaped by lived experience. Much like the particularized Catholic social imagination itself, though, the path of this argument accents some facets, underplays others, and struggles to become a coherent whole.

This nationally comparative project begins with a symbolically and historically loaded turning point: the "Jubilee Year" of 2000, during which the Catholic Church focused on bringing its social doctrine into the limelight at the exact moment that publicly religious presidential candidates were elected in both countries. At similar celebration events in the two countries, differences abound in theological content, the demographics of participants, visions of social reform and legitimate social strategies. Before moving to case studies to explore the roots of these differences, Palacios provides an overview of official Catholic social doctrine that is comprehensive, if not confusing, in its lists of principles, norms, and authoritative documents. The multiplicity of messages and logics internal to the doctrine deserves more analysis than they receive here.

The two national case studies use organizations and activists to show ways of "implementing" Catholic social doctrine. In Mexico, a history of laicidad (strict limitations on the public practice and influence of religion) couples with a national religious hierarchy focused on non-political pastoral work to produce a social imagination that is deeply Catholic, but hardly civic. Local Catholics who grasp the social imagination tend to respond by following one of two routes: into public activism that sheds connections with local parish life or into local charitable work limited to the parish boundaries. With few exceptions, activists simply do not have the organizations and cultural tools to be both Catholic and civic at the same time. In the United States, many more options abound for Catholics pursuing social justice. Given a history of open civil society, strong local congregations and traditions of public Catholic activism (think Dorothy Day and Cesar Chavez), Catholics may engage in range of activities, from professional social ministry to neighborhood organizing in the tradition of Saul Alinksy. All this activity is aided by an Americanized Catholic social theology, in contrast to that of Mexico's, which is "more Roman than Rome."(12) American Catholics seem to have more religious space for developing alternative theological interpretations and more civic space for developing an array of organizational responses.

A strength of this book is tackling a puzzle that might animate more study of international religious groups: how national traditions can simultaneously share similar cultural roots but look so different on the ground. Unfortunately, beyond the details of the two cases, the theoretical framework presented here may not help. A recurring concept of "social opportunity structure" attempts to deal with the cultural elements that its social movement cousin does not engage, but the extensive fieldwork yields too few insights into how levels of culture work to enable or constrain action. A schema offered for understanding variation in social justice activities relies on two axes, one concerning the normative focus of change (integral vs. structural) and one concerning the arena of change (church vs. world). This classification structure generally works for locating social justice activities that are found in the two countries, but it comes with a few hitches. First, the author suggests that the intersection of these axes is where an authentic Catholic social justice locus would be; however, that center is more an ideal than it is a useful type. Second, this categorization scheme does not link with the institutional, historical and cultural forces that...