BOLIVIA, THE CATHOLIC CHURCH IN

The Republic of Bolivia, one of two landlocked countries in South America, is also the poorest. It is bounded on the north and the east by Brazil, on the west by Peru and Chile, on the south by Argentina, and on the southeast by Paraguay. The low, hot lands of the east are dominated by tropical rain forests; the west by the cordillera of the Andes mountains, which traverses one-third of Bolivia. The Andean section includes a high plateau known as the Altiplano Boliviano, and a sierra broken by small protected valleys. This region contains the principal centers of population and economic activity: La Paz, the seat of government; Potosí, the mining center; Cochabamba; and Sucre. Natural resources include tin, natural gas, copper, and lead, tin being the country's largest export after natural gas. The northern and eastern plains are used for tropical farming and forest industries, yielding crops such as barley, wheat, rice, sugar cane, coffee, and coca leaves, the last of which is smuggled to Colombia for processing into cocaine. The rich petroleum fields of eastern Bolivia have been exploited by government agencies and U.S. oil companies.

Made part of the Incan civilization in 1200, Bolivia eventually came under the jurisdiction of the Audiencia de Charcas, which lasted almost 300 years under the colonial rule of Spain. In 1809 a revolt against this regime started a bloody war that lasted until 1825, when Bolivia proclaimed independence. As a result of the War of the Pacific, Bolivia lost its sea coast to Chile in 1880, and territorial disputes continued to shadow its history into the 20th century. Over half the region's population are descendants of pre-Columbian inhabitants: Quechua, Aymará, Guarani, and other ethnic groups; of the remainder 30 percent were mestizos, and an additional 15 percent white.

THE CHURCH IN BOLIVIA TO 1900

Catholicism came to South America with the first Spaniards, who were attracted to the silver and other rich mineral deposits abounding in Bolivia's mountainous region and who founded the urban communities of La Plata (modern Sucre), Potosí, and La Paz. Created a dependency to the Charcas, Bolivia (then called Upper Peru) was annexed to the Viceroyalty of Buenos Aires in 1776. The growth of a nationalist movement prompted the fight for independence, which was granted on Aug. 6, 1825. The country is named after famed revolutionary leader Simon Bolivar, who worked to free Hispanic America from Spain.

Ecclesial Organization. With Hernando Pizarro, who conquered the region in 1538, came Catholic priests entrusted with the parochial ministry among the Spaniards and the evangelization of the native peoples. A bishopric was erected at La Plata in 1552, with jurisdiction over most of South America, and the Dominican Tomás de San Martin was appointed the first bishop. The dioceses

of La Paz and Santa Cruz were erected in 1605, and four years later La Plata became an archdiocese, forming a new ecclesiastical province that included, besides La Paz and Santa Cruz, the bishoprics of Asunción, Buenos Aires, and Tucumán. The first synod held in Bolivia was convoked in 1629.

For the most part, priests, both secular and religious, were of European origin; most were born in Spain but some were of mixed race. One exception was the bishop of La Plata, Fernando Arias de Ugarte (1626–30), who said he was an aborigine and signed his pastoral documents "Fernando indio arzobispo." Mestizos were usually admitted to religious orders as lay brothers.

Development of the Missions. Within a few years of arriving in Bolivia, both secular and religious priests traveled to the Amerindian Aymará and Quechua communities on the Altiplano and in the mountains. They learned the languages and won the natives over to Christianity, although some aspects of their indigenous religions—such as rituals and superstitions surrounding harvests and luck—remained entwined in their spiritual beliefs. Unlike the Aymaras and Quechuas, the natives on the plains were warlike nomads who resisted foreign domination. It took many years of work by Jesuit missionaries working among the Moxos and Chiquitos and Franciscans working among the Chiriguanos to bring them into the missions. Among the early missionaries were the Jesuits Pedro Marbán and Cipriano Barace, founders of the Reductions among the Moxos in the middle of the 17th century; José de Arce, first to catechize the Chiquitos, and his successor, Lucas Caballero; the Franciscan brother Francisco del Pilar, who founded missions among the aboriginal Chiriguanos; and the Mercedarian Diego de Porres.

About the middle of the 18th century, evangelization among the Moxos and Chiquitos reached its peak with 22 missions, under the care of 45 missionaries. When the Spanish crown expelled the Jesuits in 1767 and secular priests took charge, the missions declined. Whites and mestizos came to live in the communities, which were transformed into diocesan parishes. The Franciscan missions among the Chiriguanos reached their acme in about 1800, with 16 towns. Unfortunately, during the war of independence that soon began, guerrilla bands, opposed to

everything Spanish, destroyed the missions. By the close of the fighting in 1825 only a few missions remained and the diocesan authority converted them into "curatos doctrineros."

The missions among the Chiriguanos were reestablished from 1840 to 1850 by Franciscans from Spain, Italy, and Austria. They also established new missions in the region, and extended their efforts into the territory of the Guarayos and in the regions of the northwest among the Amerindians of the forest. The mission of the Chiriguanos in the province of Cordillera was secularized in 1915, and that among the Guarayos in 1937, thus ending the accomplishment of centuries of work. Many natives returned to the forests, and the old mission towns disappeared. By the 1960s, the few missions left were attended by Austrian and Spanish friars.

Religious Orders. During Spanish rule, monasteries and residences were established by Franciscans, Mercedarians, Dominicans, Augustinians, Jesuits, and the Hospitallers of St. John. The Franciscans and Jesuits worked mainly in the Amerindian missions, while the Mercedarians and Augustinians cared for parishes among the Quechuas and Aymaras in the cities and rural towns. The Dominicans took as their main work the parishes among the people of European origin, while the religious of St. John of God served in hospitals. Jesuits in urban residences took up the work of education and established the Universidad Mayor de San Francisco Xavier in La Plata in 1624.

Congregations of women were restricted to nuns living the cloistered life, as the Franciscan sisters or Poor Clares, and the Augustinian nuns, who were then called Mónicas. In the 17th century the Carmelites of the Teresan reform entered the region, and convents were established in La Plata, La Paz, Potosí, and Cochabamba. The nuns' special function was to provide the churches with furnishings and liturgical vestments, to sew and embroider, and to make fine pastry. In the 18th century some of these congregations took charge of the education of children and the care of orphans.

Special Devotions. In colonial times two sanctuaries were prominent in the religious life of the country, and these became centers of national pilgrimage. In the town of Copacabana, situated in the Altiplano on the shores of the historic lake Titicaca, is venerated the image of the Virgin Mary, carved by Tito Yupanqui in the middle of the 17th century in circumstances that bordered on the miraculous, as popular legend has it. On the eastern plains in the town of Cotoca, a small image of the Mother of God is venerated. Legend says that the image was found in a dense forest within the trunk of a tree by some humble farmers in the middle of the 18th century. Both sanctuaries draw large crowds of the devout, especially on their respective feast days. Though people of all classes come there, the poor are in the majority.

INDEPENDENCE FROM SPAIN

In Bolivia, revolutionary outbreaks in opposition to Spanish rule occurred earlier than they did in neighboring regions, but those taking place before 1780 were unsuccessful. Also unlike the rest of Spanish America, the Church made no official pronouncement on the independence movement when it grew in strength at the turn of the 19th century. In general the hierarchy and the higher ranks of clergymen remained loyal to the Spanish government, while the majority of priests took part in the struggle for independence. The priests José Antonio Medina, José Andrés Salvatierra, and Juan Bautista Oquendo incited the popular movements of 1809 and 1810. Father Muñecas was a leader of a band of guerrillas, and Fathers Polanco and Mercado, and Fray Justo acted as chaplains for the guerrillas.

One year following José de Sucre's victory at the battle of Ayacucho in 1824, the sovereign state of Bolivia was created. After a brief alliance with Peru, Bolivia battled Chile over rights to a coastal region, then lost this land altogether in the War of the Pacific in 1884. After a succession of military coups, a stable democratic regime lasted through the first decades of the 20th century. This state of flux of political affairs did not bring a substantial change in the Church. The patronato real, which had been exercised by the king of Spain, was passed on to the president; eventually, through the Concordat of 1951, the right to regulate church-state relations would be granted to the Holy See.

Focus of Church Outreach. Religious vocations, which had been numerous during the colonial period, diminished somewhat during the first century of independence. Still, during the 19th century a number of

charitable institutions were founded in the newly independent Bolivia, growing to more than 50 by 1900. Most were in the charge of religious congregations of women, such as the Sisters of the Good Shepherd, Sisters of St. Vincent de Paul, the Adoration Sisters, the Missionary Crusaders of the Church, and the Servants of Mary. Lay institutes and religious congregations maintained hospitals, homes for the aged and for foundlings, and first aid stations. The commitment to education also increased notably in the course of the republic, particularly religious orders or congregations such as Jesuits, Christian Brothers, Franciscans, Sisters of St. Ann, and Sisters of the Sacred Hearts. Most of the grammar schools were free, particularly those in rural areas.

In the mid-19th century a press was established in La Plata. The periodical El Cruzado was published in Sucre under the direction of eminent religious writers, and La Cátedra was edited in La Paz up to the 1930s. Among the ecclesiastical authors of books or pamphlets on religious subjects may be mentioned Juan de Dios Bosque, in theology and Canon law; Jacinto Anaya, in Canon law; Francisco María del Granado, famous preacher; and Cayetano de la Llosa, author of commentaries on the devout life. José María Izquierdo in Carta abierta a Flammarión

refuted rationalism; Primo Arieta wrote a remarkable polemic in defense of religion; Pedro Arístides Zejas was the author of instructive catechisms; and Facundo Quiroga was a famous teacher.

[h. sanabria fernÁndez]

THE MODERN CHURCH

The effects of the sectarian and anti-Catholic liberalism that had first made its appearance in Bolivia during the late 19th century began to show themselves in concrete ways after 1900. The law of Oct. 11, 1911, instituted civil marriage, while another law of April 15, 1932, allowed absolute divorce. Catholic universities established during the colonial period were by now integrated into the national system of state universities by liberal politicians who severed their ties with the Church and closed the faculties of theology and canon law. Such policies drew increasing opposition from a vigorous group of Catholic-based thinkers by the early 1900s. Among these intellectuals were Donato Vázquez, Aurelio Beltrán, José Santos Machicao, Luis Paz, and Mariano Baptista, the last of whom was elected president of the republic during the government's pendulum-like swing between liberal and conservative regimes. In 1936 a military coup ousted the last of the liberal presidents, reformist Daniel Salamanca, and installed a military regime. In 1952 a second coup occurred, leading to the deaths of 1,000 people and bringing to power the left-wing Movimento Nacionalista in the person of President Victor Paz Estenssoro. Estenssoro nationalized the tin mines, extended voting rights to all adults, and distributed large blocks of formerly Spanish-owned lands among the lower classes. A military government ousted him from power in 1962.

Poverty Prompts Civil Unrest. During the 1940s and 1950s Church-run charitable institutions such as hospitals and medical stations reached deeply into the life of the country and sought to combat the appeals of communism, which had taken root in Central and South America. The effect was especially visible in mining centers, such as Catavi, Llallagua, and Corocoro, where communist agitators were most active. In 1967 the economic situation in Bolivia prompted South American revolutionary leader Ché Guevara to move to Bolivia and attempt to mobilize tin miners to rise up against the country's military government. Guevara's efforts were unsuccessful, and he was executed within the year.

The pressure for change and social justice in Bolivia and throughout Latin America from the mid-1960s onwards

coincided with efforts to implement reforms called for by the Second Vatican Council. The conciliar awakening among Catholics heightened the sense of responsibility of service to the poor and the native peoples and gave direction to social reform. On Feb. 2, 1967, a new constitution was put into place in Bolivia that reflected some of these attitudes. This document recognized as official the Catholic religion and granted the Church state support. Religious education was made obligatory in primary and middle schools, and the teachers received special income.

Resurgence Follows Vatican II. Missionaries from North America and Europe had a significant role in the postconciliar renewal. Maryknoll priests and sisters from the United States had begun their first mission to assist the Bolivian Church in 1942, and they were soon joined by others from not only the United States but Italy and elsewhere in Europe. Lay men and women joined in the mission efforts through such programs as the Papal Volunteers. In all, over 30 countries and dozens of religious communities sent missionaries to Bolivia in the years after Vatican II, although by the 1980s their numbers would be reduced as the reforms took root in the Bolivian Church and new theologies of mission began to develop. The CELAM meeting at santo domingo in 1992 signaled a new direction for Latin America and Bolivia with its emphasis on relating the faith to local cultures and ending missionary colonialism. In another effort toward renewal, the Holy See sponsored a program by Church leaders to translate the Bible into Quechua, an Andean native language, as part of Jubilee 2000.

After Vatican II the bishops, who had met periodically during the 1950s, formalized their gatherings. As the Bolivian Bishops' Conference they began to exert a more active presence. Because of their pastoral emphasis, they avoided the doctrinal and theological conflicts that beset other Latin America countries. The Bolivian Bishops' Conference stressed renewal through various pastoral planning guidelines that emphasize the development of Basic Christian Communities, the preferential option for the poor (especially indigenous ethnic groups), lay formation programs, family life programs, and the promotion of vocations to the priesthood and religious life. The new vitality, strength, and influence brought by the forces for social change and Vatican II's renewal of Catholicism to the Bolivian Church were evidenced in 1992 by the national consultation of Bolivian Catholics by their bishops that resulted in a highly praised study of pastoral priorities presented to the bishops of Latin America in preparation for Santo Domingo.

In 1952, a group of lay Catholics began publishing the daily secular newspaper Presencia. which went on to play an invaluable role as the Church's voice against the excesses of torture, exile, and human rights abuses of the succession of military dictators during the 1960s and 1970s. By the late 20th century it had become an influential voice for the poor and indigenous peoples of Bolivia. Catholic radio stations grew in numbers and prestige after Vatican II and broadcast regional programming in each of Bolivia's variety of native languages.

In 1966 the Catholic University was founded by the Bishops' Conference. With its center in La Paz, the school had branches in Cochabamba and Santa Cruz. It opened a department of religious studies to offer graduate and postgraduate degrees not previously available in the country. The archdiocese of La Paz and the archdiocese of Santa Cruz also began campus ministry programs at state universities and teacher colleges around the country to instruct Catholic students in higher education. Churchrun primary and secondary schools were estimated to educate 14 percent of the entire student population by the 1990s. Catholic religious instruction continued to be provided in all the country's public schools.

Moral Leadership. From the mid-1960s onward, military governments succeeded each other in quick succession, a situation that would continue until 1982, when exiled former president Paz Estenssoro returned to Bolivia and took power. This period was characterized by repression, violence, and religious repression, as governments attempted to hold onto political power in a nation with severe economic problems.

In 1978, a small group of miners' wives, protested their poverty and the military repression that, under the regime of General Hugo Banzer Suarez, caused hundreds to be killed, exiled, or "disappeared". On their hunger strike to restore democracy they were joined by Luis Espinal, SJ, as well as many other priests, religious, and lay people. President Banzer relented and called for free elections. However, on March 22, 1980, Espinal was murdered by paramilitary forces. His death had a tremendous influence on young people; 70,000 people of all walks of life attended his funeral, and many schools, institutes, libraries, and youth centers now bear his name. The Church became a target of particular repression a few months later, during the July 1980 coup of General Louis Garcia Meza, when over 50 priests, women religious, and lay missionaries were put in prison, exiled, or expelled from the country.

After the downfall of Meza's regime, Paz Estenssoro regained the presidency of Bolivia in 1982. He remained in the office until 1989, when the civil unrest resulting from a sustained economic downturn prompted voters to seek a new approach. Beginning in the 1990s the results of Bolivia's transition to a market-oriented economy, the increase in trafficking in illegal drugs, and concerns over government corruption continued to demand the attention of the country's democratically elected presidents.

By the 1990s radical feminists within Bolivia were actively lobbying for abortion rights, reflecting a worldwide move toward a liberal social agenda. Much to the dismay of Church leaders, the government moved in the same direction, attempting to stem the tide of the country's 50,000 annual illegally performed abortions by permitting legal abortions. Bishops also spoke against another 20th century social ill, materialism, by warning the faithful to guard against the culture of violence and consumerism that was coming on the heels of the nation's economic advancement.

In the early 1990s thousands of native peoples marched on La Paz seeking to reclaim their rights to land, language, and culture. The Church supported their demands and mediated the conflicts with peaceful results, although not always with significant legal changes. Such social and religious ferment continued to inspire Catholics across the region to seek reform and, in some cases, even revolution. Nonetheless the continuing economic, political, and social tensions cast the Church in a leadership role mediating disputes about land reform, workers' rights, indigenous people's rights to their territories and their culture, education reform, health care, and welfare reforms required by the modernization process. Continuing their tradition of providing input into government policy-making, in 1997 Church leaders came out in support of President Barzer's economic reform proposals, although they did express criticisms regarding other facets of his political agenda.

Into the 21st Century. At the beginning of the 21st century, the Church oversaw over 300 hospitals, clinics, and parish health centers, mostly in poor or rural areas. Because of the national extension of these Church programs, there were many projects of technical and financial collaboration between church and state. In many poor rural and urban areas the Church was the principal agent for government-subsidized social programs and projects, and Catholic-run schools provided the only education in many remote areas of the country. However, the majority of Church pastoral, educational, and social programs were funded by Church sources with a continued heavy dependence on mission collections from other countries.

While religious liberty prevailed in Bolivia, the privileged position of the Catholic Church began to come under question, as the activity of some of the over 250 Christian sects operating in the country—Pentecostals, Mormons, Assemblies of God, and Jehovah's Witnesses among them—increased during the late 20th century. While missionaries from the major Protestant faiths became increasingly active in entering communities, dispensing economic aid, and proselytizing, they remained without significant influence in the life of the country, and in 1999 the Church initiated an interfaith dialogue with representatives of the country's Pentecostal churches as well as members of its Jewish minority. However, so-called "dissident" and "pseudoreligious" sects were seen as more problematic, causing Bishop Jesus Juarez of the Bolivian Bishops' Conference to observe that such groups were "causing the loss of the sense of history, damaging the native culture, and creating division within communities."

In 2000, there were 29 bishops in Bolivia. The clergy numbered 1,058 priests, 664 of whom were religious. The figures for religious totaled 2,104 sisters and 198 brothers, the majority of whom were missionaries. Despite predictions that Catholicism would wane during the 20th century, in 2000 the country remained among those South American nations most strongly committed to the Church.

Bibliography: e. dussel, ed., The Church in Latin America, 1492–1992 (Maryknoll, N.Y. 1992). conference of bolivian bishops, Guía Eclesiastica (La Paz 1994); Mensajes y Exhortaciones de la Conferencia Episcopal de Bolivia, 2 vols. 1963–78, 1979–92 (La Paz) Presencia (La Paz 1952—). government ministry of planning and coordination, Censo Nacional de Población-1992 (La Paz). n. paz, My Life for My Friends (New York 1978).

[m. gillgannon/eds.]