Chile’s Secular Triumph Challenges Catholicism
DEVELOPMENTS
Chile’s cultural and political history have shaped a nation that has long been considered one of South America’s most socially conservative and religiously homogeneous, in which the Catholic Church´s stronghold over Chilean law and society was unquestioned for decades. Yet the role of religion in Chile is evolving. Chile has entered an era of secularization, which is driving changes both in social norms and in government policies.
The changing role of religion is perhaps best observed in Chile’s populace. The country’s youth, referred to as "the children of the democracy," have broken strongly with “the children of the dictatorship” – those who lived under Pinochet’s regime. Chilean youth have resolutely rejected many of the Catholic-inspired notions that previously defined standards of behavior, particularly those related to chastity. This amounts to Chile’s sexual revolution, where young adults are defying Catholicism’s prohibitions on pre-marital sex and birth control by “having sex earlier and testing the borderlines with their sexual conduct,” according to Dr. Ramiro Molina, director of the University of Chile’s Center for Adolescent Reproductive Medicine and Development.
BACKGROUND
Catholicism has defined much of Chile’s political, cultural, and social history. The nation’s leaders historically relied on Catholicism as a central tenet of their political platform, reflecting the privileged role the Catholic Church has enjoyed since the days of the Spanish Conquest. Chile has historically been so religiously homogeneous that as recently as 1982, the national census did not include questions on religion. Statistics indicate that as much as 89% of Chile’s population is still Catholic, although more recent studies indicate that this number is declining, with more Chileans identifying as Protestants and atheists.
In September of 1973, communist dictator Augusto Pinochet overthrew President Salvador Allende, the socialist leader . Pinochet, much like his predecessors, professed a marriage to Catholic tenets, claiming the Roman Catholic Church was the “cornerstone of the new Chile.” Despite Pinochet’s professed allegiance to the Catholic Church, a large part of his opposition came from an organization of various political groups (“The Civic Union”) that united in the common cause of the Roman Catholic Church.
Chile’s socialists fled during Pinochet’s regime, often settling in socialist countries in Europe, where they adopted European views on the separation of church and state. After the fall of the dictatorship, many of Chile’s exiles returned, bringing with them European views of secular government.
In 1998, Pinochet was arrested on charges of numerous human rights violations, including torture, kidnappings, and murder. The post-Pinochet Chile has seen a string of socialist leaders associated with the political left. These leaders and their administrations, in conjunction with the cultural backlash after Pinochet, created the ideal conditions to strengthen and perpetuate Chile’s break with Catholicism.
Many point to Chile’s center-left president Michele Bachelet as an embodiment of the cultural revolution now in underway. Elected in 2006, President Bachelet is both Chile’s first female leader and first openly agnostic president. She has isolated many rightists in her efforts to separate government decisions from the influence of the Catholic church. While prior administrations governed according to the Church’s interests, Bachelet established that Catholicism will no longer be a driving force in government. “It didn’t used to be this way,” said Carolina Salvatierra, a Chilean national who grew up under dictator Augusto Pinochet’s regime. “Before, the first consideration was what the Church wanted. After that, the laws were made.”
Bachelet is responsible for a government program that arranged for public hospitals to provide the morning-after pill to minors, an effort to reduce the opportunity gap between rich and poor women. The program infuriated conservatives who argued it amounted to abortion, which is illegalin Chile. In April 2008, Chile’s Supreme Court ruled that the morning-after pill program was illegal.
Not all of Chile’s young adults are buying into the sexual revolution, and some believe that secularization isn’t even the root cause. “It is true that with Chile’s secularization there are more liberties, and that the vision of sexuality has evolved according to these, but perception of sexuality in youth is distorted,” says Santiago resident Florencia Venegas, 21. She attributes much of the changes in attitudes towards sex to socioeconomic disparities. The sexual revolution has reached its greatest momentum in lower socioeconomic classes, whose members often have “few things to aspire to and don’t have anything better to do than to go out and poncear,” says Venegas, referring to a Chilean word coined to describe the practice of going to parties and competing to make out with the most people. “Groping and grabbing and oral sex and who knows else what in public places.”
ANALYSIS
Chile’s secularization has already begun to affect the nation’s laws and policies, and the increasing departure from Catholic mores has potentially far-reaching political and social implications for the country.
Sex education has already emerged as a contentious issue in Chilean public schools, as Bachelet has vowed to overhaul the sex-ed curriculum now in place in Chile’s schools. The extent to which the government’s policies continue to break with Catholic-inspired leadership will define successive generations of Chileans, and might require the implementation of new health, education, and welfare programs to respond to the changes resulting from new social standards.
Furthermore, a less religiously inspired system of laws might see the emergence of other religious groups and the growth of a more diverse populace, drastically changing the fiber of what is now one of Latin America’s most homogeneous nations.
Perhaps most significantly, Chile’s secularization will create opportunities for lawmaking that might align Chile, from a social perspective, much more closely to American and Western European nations. For example, Chile will have the opportunity to overhaul its policies towards gays and lesbians – including not only gay marriage, but other areas of gay rights. For example, the Chile was recently subject to international criticism when a Chilean judge lost custody of her child in 2005 after admitting to being a lesbian. The opportunity to create new laws might allow Chile to make a powerful statement to the international community regarding social issues.
Yet some believe that the secularization might do more harm than good. “Religion is a force that instills values and respect, and these makes it possible for societies to work well,” Salvatierra said. “Without religion, the possibility that new generations of Chileans begin to decay are much higher.”
Others see the secular trends in Chilean society as a large challenge facing government. “Is the state ready for the effects of this new conduct?” asks a 20-year old Design Student studying at the Universidad de Chile. “[I think the] response to that question is no.”
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Catherine Fisher is the International Editor of Foreign Policy Digest.