ABSTRACT
Since the late 1950s, the Latin American Church has undergone radical changes in terms of theology and pastoral organization. Innovations such as liberation theology and comunidades eclesiales de bases (CEBs) have tended to rein vigorate the political role the Church plays in society. Moreover, in several authoritarian regimes, the Roman Catholic Church has been the sole source of opposition. Nevertheless, this change has not been uniform across Latin America. Several national episcopates supported authoritarian rule in the 1960s and 1970s. This study examines the role of religious competition (between Catholics and non-Catholics) in determining whether the national Church hierarchy endorses or opposes dictatorial rule. I argue that the increasing presence of Protestantism in some countries has forced the episcopate to adopt membership retention strategies that are antithetical to the military’s goal of suppressing subversive organizations. Application of nonlinear regression techniques to preliminary data provides a test of this hypothesis.
