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Ecuador The Roman Catholic Church
The role of the Roman Catholic Church in society was the most
divisive political issue in Ecuador for more than a century after
independence. Despite the confiscation of its land by the Alfaro
government at the beginning of the twentieth century, the church in
the Sierra retained its preeminent position in social and economic
life. In the more remote villages and small towns of the Sierra,
the parish priest was often seen as the ultimate temporal, as well
as spiritual, authority. The church gave religious and moral
legitimacy to the actions of its defender, the PC. By contrast, the
Costa was the base of the PLR, whose major platform traditionally
had been anticlericalism. PLR policies caused the clergy and many
devout laymen to rise to the defense of the church and its
prerogatives. Nonetheless, by 1945 the church-state conflict had
ceased to be a significant political issue on the national level.
In the 1960s, the church hierarchy, influenced by reformoriented papal encyclicals, endorsed land reform, a more just
system of taxation, and workers' human rights. The church underwent
a process of significant internal transformation and ideological
renovation and found itself cast in the role of an advocate of farreaching change and innovation
(see Religion
, ch. 2). Nevertheless,
Thomas G. Sanders noted that the Catholic Church in Ecuador had
become firmly committed to nonpartisanship by the late 1970s.
According to Sanders, the Ecuadorian church's more neutral role
contributed to political stability and strengthened pluralism by
emphasizing national unity and the need to promote social justice.
Data as of 1989
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