ABSTRACT

A Church which is no longer unified and which is unable to fulfil its most valuable function to the state-the transmission of values conducive to order and respect for authority-risks its privileged position in the eyes of the state. When a sector of that Church advocates that the Church should no longer serve the state but the poor, as it has in most countries of Central America, the relationship of Church and state is in deep crisis, with far-reaching implications for the social order. Pope John Paul II recognizes this fact, and is on the offensive to halt the advance of those associated with liberation theology. The political authorities have also recognized the problem. The Central Intelligence Agency under the Reagan administration promoted a right-wing evangelical Protestantism in Central America, which preached non-political responses to hunger and injustice, once so successfully advocated by the Catholic Church in the region. Clearly, the relationship of religion to politics, of the Church to the state in Central America, is at a crossroads; the outcome is not yet clear.