ABSTRACT
In the United States, bishops have sharply criticized the Reagan administration's Central America policy as "profoundly mistaken." The flight of 70 percent of Cuba's clergy after Premier Fidel Castro came to power jolted many of Latin America's roughly 650 bishops out of their complacency toward the revolutionary change threatening to break out throughout the region. On the local level, progressive bishops supported the formation of new organizations called Christian Base Communities to help turn their "Church of the Poor" orientation into concrete actions. In conferences at Medellin, Colombia, in 1968 and at Puebla, Mexico, in 1979, the bishops of Latin America resolved to work for social and political justice while avoiding direct political and electoral activities. The challenges posed by bishops, priests, nuns, and lay workers to the economic and political institutions that oppress and impoverish peasants and slum dwellers have therefore been met by increasing harrassment, intimidation, and violence.
