ABSTRACT
Generally, it is assumed that the reaction of the Catholic Churches to the last military dictatorships in Chile and Argentina was different. Meanwhile the Chilean Church, after a first ambiguous and moderate reaction, turned itself into a moral opposition to the regime and founded the Vicariate of Solidarity to help the victims of violations of Human Rights, the Argentine church maintained a position of complicity with the military, and in some moments, even legitimated the brutal repression of the regime. This chapter, although not questioning the general correctness of this idea, tries to draw a much more nuanced image of the reaction of both churches, and considers the efforts of both churches to protect human rights and help the victims. It also analyzes the differences in the reaction of both churches and underlines the reasons for these differences, trying to show that a comparison between the two churches could give some interesting clues about the reaction of the Catholic church to gross violations of human rights.
