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Peru The Church
Although Peru does not have an official religion, the
Roman
Catholic Church--to which over 90 percent of Peruvians
belonged--
is recognized in the constitution as deserving of
government
cooperation. Traditionally, the Roman Catholic Church has
monopolized religion in the public domain.
In the Peruvian Catholic Church hierarchy, staunch
conservatives, such as Archbishop Juan Landazúri Ricketts,
wielded a great deal of influence. Six of the total
eighteen
bishops, including Landazúri, belonged to the
ultraconservative
Opus Dei movement. At the same time, the founder of
liberation theology (see Glossary),
Gustavo Gutiérrez, was a member of the
official church in Peru, and liberation theology had a
strong presence at the grassroots level. Unlike Brazil, where the
official church could be described as liberal and critical
of the more conservative Vatican, or Colombia, where the church
was a loyal follower of the Vatican's policies, in the Peruvian
Church hierarchy both trends coexisted, or at least competed for
influence. Conservatives followed the dictates of Pope
John Paul II, a strong proponent of theological orthodoxy and
vertical control of the church. This contrasted sharply with the
progressives in the Latin American church, who espoused
the mandate of Vatican II, which exhorted the clergy to become
actively involved in humanity's struggle for peace and
justice,
and to help the poor to help themselves rather than accept
their
fate.
At the grassroots level, the church was extremely
active at
organizing neighborhood organizations and self-help
groups, such
as communal kitchens and mothers' clubs
(see Catholicism and Community
, ch. 2). Church activities at this level had
little to
do with theoretical debates at higher levels, although
they
tended to emanate from the more progressive sectors
within.
Church-related organizations, such as Caritas (Catholic
Relief
Services), were active in providing local efforts with
donations
of food and funds from abroad. Indeed, Caritas had a
nationwide
network of coverage superior to or at least rivaling that
of any
state ministry or institution.
In addition to Caritas, the other major nongovernment
organizer of communal kitchens and mothers' clubs in Lima
was the
Seventh Day Adventist Church, which reflected the
increasing
importance of the Evangelical Movement. Although only
about 4.5
percent of Peru's population was Protestant, the
Evangelical
Movement was extremely active at the grassroots level,
and, as
aforementioned, was critical to the victory of Fujimori
and
Cambio '90 in poor areas. The Catholic Church hierarchy
felt
sufficiently threatened by the Evangelicals' support for
Fujimori
that it unofficially backed Vargas Llosa, an agnostic,
against
Fujimori, a Catholic.
The church, to the extent that it was an organizer of
the
poor, had increasingly come into conflict with the SL.
Initially,
the SL paid little attention to the clergy. In Ayacucho,
for
example, where the traditionally oriented church hierarchy
had
little involvement with social issues, the church was of
little
relevance to the SL. However, in the late 1980s, the SL's
strategy shifted, and the group became more concerned with
the
church's organizational potential. The SL had a more
difficult
challenge in organizing support, particularly in areas
where the
church had been active in encouraging close community
bonds, such
as parts of Cajamarca and Puno. In such areas, as in the
shantytowns surrounding Lima, clergy had increasingly
become
targets of SL assassinations as well.
In the face of the weakening of other state
institutions, the
church's role, at least at the grassroots level, had
increased in
importance
(see Community Life and Institutions
, ch. 2).
Caritas
was the primary mobilizer of food donations and aid during
the
most critical stage of the Fujimori government's shock
stabilization plan. Although the government promised its
own
social emergency programs, none materialized, and the
church
surfaced as the primary vehicle for channeling aid to the
poor.
This activity increased the visibility of the clergy as a
target
of SL attacks, and posed difficult choices for members of
the
clergy who continued to operate in the regions where the
SL had a
strong presence--the majority of the areas where most of
the poor
of Peru resided.
Data as of September 1992
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