Between Religion and Politics: The Military Clergy during the Late Twentieth-Century Dictatorships in Argentina and Chile

Abstract

This article analyses the history of the military clergy and contrasts its role in the Argentine and Chilean dictatorships on the basis of new, previously inaccessible sources. It is argued here that, in addition to its ideological orientation, two further factors explain differences in the influence of the military clergy on the two regimes: first, the structural position that the Military Vicariates occupied between the Church and the armed forces, and, second, the two dictatorships’ different needs for legitimisation. The analysis provides information relevant to understanding the public role of the Catholic Church and the dimensions of violence during the regimes.

Identity, Incentives, and Religious Defense of Human Rights: Marshall Meyer and the DAIA in Argentina's Dirty War

“…On the other hand, the near‐monopoly of the Catholic Church on religious practice and its extensive ties to the country's series of military dictatorships proscribed religious human rights activism (Mallimaci 2012; Obregón 2005; Ruderer 2015) and obstructed the activities of religious minorities. In the early 1970s, 95.8 percent of Argentines identified as Catholic—comparable to most other Latin American countries during this period (Gill 1998).…”

“…Second, the multi-method approach bridges past work on religion and human rights that has been exclusively case-based and descriptive, such as Carassai (2014), Katz (2011), Ruderer (2015), and Catoggio (2011), with scholarship that is cross-national and explanatory, such as Cingranelli and Kalmick (2019), Cole and Perrier (2020), and Grim and Finke (2007). Through careful elaboration of mechanisms in the case study, combined with a cross-national test of one empirical implication, the research design increases both internal and external validity.…”