The sanctity of the church is considered forbidden ground to all
those who attempt to portray the life and customs of the people of
any country. To criticise religious forms or customs is to incur the
displeasure, arouse the combative spirit and the resentful nature of
the communicants of the church under discussion. It means to bring down
upon the head of the offending scribe the wrath of those who have found
consolation in the church. Religious views and ideas, with prejudices
deep rooted and strong, are generally inherited.
Believing that there is good in all churches, that the Christian
religion is the foundation upon which the superstructure of good
society and modern civilization is based, the writer wishes to preface
his comments on the Church in Chile, with the statement that it is not
the purpose to criticise the Christian religion, but to point out some
of the peculiar, and what would seem to the disinterested observer,
objectionable practices in the dominating church.
The Catholic religion has been so closely interwoven in the fabric
of Chilean history that it forms a feature of every chapter in the
Republic’s record. It is impossible to accurately describe the life
and customs of the country, and at the same time omit so important an
influence as that exercised by the church on the political and social
life of Chile.
Article 4 of the constitution (1833), says: “La Religion de la
República de Chile és la Católica Apostólica Romana, con exclusión del
ejercicio publico de cualquiera otra.” (The religion of the Republic of
Chile is the Roman Catholic Apostolic with the exclusion of the public
exercise of whatever other.)
Under constitutional authority the public exercise of all religious
worship, except the Catholic, was excluded from Chile until 1865, when
the right was conceded to establish non-Catholic schools within private
property, and to be supervised by a Catholic board. Later came another
innovation in the civil register law.
In Chile the State sanctions, helps to support and maintain the
Catholic church, and the church participates in politics and the
affairs of state. Reaching out through its various ramifications the
church extends its influence to the farthest limits of the country,
both socially and politically. The union of Church and State is
strong, and the day seems far distant when they will be divorced. Able
and courageous men, individually and in party groups, have tried to
loosen the hold Catholicism has on Chile, and have in some instances
weakened its influence upon the body politic, but it is still powerful.
President Balmaceda endeavored to separate Church and State, not by
destroying the church, but by directing each in its legitimate channel.
The result was defeat, revolution, disaster and death.
One of the Popes said concerning the Catholic church: “Its catholicity
is its credentials to Divine origin and authority.” It is not the
intention of the writer to challenge this statement, but the broad,
liberal Catholic idea would seem to suggest that the influence of the
church should be directed along lines laid down in the Divine Law, and
not exerted in an effort to control political policies.
It is not the purpose to discuss here the individual merits of the
clergy, but to consider it as a body politic, its influence for weal
or woe with the people and upon the nation. It is a significant fact
that every law on the statute books tending to secure greater liberty
of action, freedom of thought and speech, has been opposed by the
political element of the church. Such progressive measures as the civil
register law, providing for a public record of births, deaths and
marriages, and requiring civil marriage ceremonies; the establishment
and maintenance of public and private schools, and the designation of
non-Catholic cemeteries, where Protestants might receive burial, have
received the opposition of the clergy.
To try to lift the veil and look into the private lives of the clergy
would seem little less than sacrilege. It would reveal acts pure
and noble, lives worthy of example and emulation, and it would also
show startling and shocking scenes enacted in the name of religion.
There are those who are sacrificing their lives in the cause of the
Master, others living vicious and licentious lives under the cloak
of Christianity. The illiteracy and superstition of the people give
to the unworthy and insincere opportunities to practice deception
and imposition. Upon the other hand, these same conditions afford an
ample field and unlimited opportunities for good, with those who are
conscientious and possess the true Christian spirit.
There are more than ten thousand monks of different orders in Chile.
During the summer months they go about the country in pairs or in
trios, holding mission services, which they conduct without price or
reference to money. The expenses of these itinerant clergymen are paid
from the funds of the order they represent. They do much good in the
way of instructing the poor country and village people in the rudiments
of civilized life, cleanliness, and how to rear their children. These
mission services usually continue for a week or ten days in one place,
during which time many of the women and children of the community
remain about the church, sleeping upon the ground at night. These
mission fathers in no way clash with the regular priests, everything
being understood and prearranged. Medallions and colored prints of
their patron saints are freely distributed, and never fail to create a
pleasing effect upon the women and children. The children are gathered
into classes and turned over to the more intelligent of the women of
the church, who teach them the catechism, and to sing the chants. If
the children appear indifferent, or especially stupid in these first
instructions and church discipline, their minds are brightened and
their memories sharpened by whacks with a stick in the hands of the
monks. But alas, these poor children only memorize the printed prayers,
no explanations of their true meaning being made, and so through life
they go on repeating prayers without knowing the significance of the
words. Not infrequently this smattering of an education, gained through
the mission teachings of the traveling monks, is all that many of
them receive. It is through these methods of early instruction that
the prolific growth of superstition prevalent in Chile is cultivated
and kept alive. Children are taught that the several saints on the
calendar, the anniversary of each of which is celebrated with a
religious feast, are all powerful, and that the good offices of the
saints can be secured through the intermediary of the priests.