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Uruguay The Roman Catholic Church
The Roman Catholic Church has had only a minimal role
in
Uruguay because of a strong anticlerical bias bequeathed
by
Batlle y Ordóñez. Unlike many other Latin American
countries,
religion has not interfered in politics to any significant
extent. Although 66 percent of the population was
nominally Roman
Catholic in 1990, less than half were practicing
Catholics. The
church's main political wing was the PDC, which advocated
social
transformation through democratic means. In addition,
there were
numerous lay organizations engaged in enhancing the
church's
social relevance. These included the Catholic Workers'
Circle,
Catholic Action, the Christian Democratic Youth Movement,
and the
Catholic Family Movement. The conservatives had few
representatives among the clergy.
The election of Lacalle, a devout Catholic, may have
reflected ascending Catholic influence in the nation.
Another
indicator of rising Catholic influence was the
establishment in
1984 of the Catholic University of Uruguay in Montevideo,
the
country's only private university. However, the limits of
Catholic influence in Uruguay were highlighted in early
1986 by
the failure of a proposal by Catholic conservatives in the
Colorado and National parties to ban the film Hail
Mary,
which the church hierarchy regarded as "pornographic and
blasphemous."
Data as of December 1990
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