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Colombia The Church
Colombia's Roman Catholic Church traditionally was one
of the
most orthodox, conservative, and powerful in Latin
America. In the
late 1980s, it retained influence within the PSC and kept
close
relations with the Union of Colombian Workers (Unión de
Trabajadores Colombianos--UTC) and the National Agrarian
Federation
(Federación Agraria Nacional--Fanal), a rural labor
organization
organized by the UTC and Jesuits in 1946. The church also
played a
major role in the country's education system and had an
impact on
most charitable activities. Members of the clergy sat on
the boards
of directors of many government agencies. The church was
further
integrated into, or at least close to, the nation's
decision-making
elite because of the upper-class and upper-middle-class
background
of the church hierarchy. Nonetheless, the increasing
secularization
of Colombian society since the 1960s had produced a
considerable
erosion of the church's political power
(see Religion
, ch.
2).
Data as of December 1988
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