Evo Morales and the Catholic Church

Evo Morales
Metropolitan Cathedral of Sucre

The administration of former Bolivian president Evo Morales maintained a strained relationship with the Bolivian hierarchy of the Roman Catholic Church. This relationship posed a problem for Morales, as polls taken in the early 2000 indicated that about seven million of the nine million Bolivians adhered to the Roman Catholic faith.[1][2]

When faced with a Morales policy that they disagreed with, such as the proposed secularization, liberalization and modernization of schools, the Catholic bishops of Bolivia were able to inspire massive demonstrations against the measures. The Catholic Church drew most of its support from the cities and little from rural areas (where Morales drew his primary support) due to limited assets and the prevalence of traditional indigenous culture.[3] Morales has stated that he is a Catholic.[4] Morales, like many rural Bolivians, was raised with a combination of Catholicism and belief in the Pachamama in addition to Ekeko.[3][5] Other indigenous leaders, such as Félix Patzi, follow a pure indigenous faith and reject Christianity. Even though there are leaders within this faith, there has not been a shift amongst Bolivians to become 'indigenous-belief only'.[3] Morales later commented that he is only a Roman Catholic in order to attend wedding ceremonies and when asked if he believed in God, he responded: "I believe in the land. In my father and my mother. And in cuchi - cachi (sexual activity)."[6]

The special status that used to be given to Catholicism in Bolivia can be seen in Article 3 of the former Bolivian Constitution (1967), which says, "The State recognizes and sustains the Catholic, Apostolic, and Roman Religion. It guarantees the public exercise of all other faiths. Relations with the Catholic Church shall be governed by concordats and agreements between the Bolivian State and the Holy See."[7] The United States State Department characterized this as constitutional recognition of Catholicism as the state religion.[3] However, after the enactment of the current Bolivian Constitution in 2009, the Roman Catholic church lost this official status.[8] Article 4 of the new constitution states: "The State respects and guarantees the freedom of Religion and Spiritual beliefs, in accordance with every individual's cosmovisions. The State is independent of religion." This constitutional change, in addition to Morales' leftist policies, has contributed to the uneasy relationship between the Church and the State.

  1. ^ "Bolivian archbishop decries "Communist" actions of the government". Catholic News Agency. July 18, 2006. Archived from the original on September 27, 2007. Retrieved February 12, 2007. Retrieved on February 12, 2007
  2. ^ "Morales: Catholic leaders acting like 'Inquisition'". Associated Press. July 26, 2006. Archived from the original on September 27, 2007. Retrieved February 8, 2007.
  3. ^ a b c d "Bolivia - International Religious Freedom Report 2005". US State Dept. Retrieved on February 13, 2007
  4. ^ "Capitalism Has Only Hurt Latin America". Der Spiegel. September 4, 2006. Archived from the original on September 29, 2007. Retrieved February 13, 2007. Retrieved on February 13, 2007
  5. ^ "Evo Morales profile > childhood". Archived from the original on September 9, 2007. Retrieved February 13, 2007. Retrieved on February 13, 2007
  6. ^ Sivak, Martín, 1975- (2010). Evo Morales : the extraordinary rise of the first indigenous president of Bolivia. Sivak, Martín, 1975- (1st ed.). New York, NY: Palgrave Macmillan. ISBN 9780230623057. OCLC 522429260.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link) CS1 maint: numeric names: authors list (link)
  7. ^ "Church not asking to be official religion of the State, Bolivian cardinal says". Catholic News Agency. June 20, 2006. Archived from the original on September 27, 2007. Retrieved February 13, 2007. Retrieved on February 12, 2007
  8. ^ http://www.laconstituyente.org/ Archived November 22, 2011, at the Wayback Machine Retrieved on November 30, 2011