Extract
The role of the Catholic church and other religious institutions in the Guatemalan peace process, 1980-1996.
Between 1980 and 1996, the Guatemalan Catholic Church, along with other religious institutions, played a major role in that country's peace process (which ultimately ended a thirty-five year struggle between the government and an armed opposition). One aspect of this involvement was the formal peace negotiations (which originated with the Esquipulas II agreements in 1987), in which the Catholic Church and other religious players figured prominently. The second aspect was the Guatemalan peace movement, an effort by a wide variety of groups that began working in the early 1980s to legitimize the then "subversive" idea of a negotiated peace--and which later played a supporting role in the process of negotiating and implementing the peace accords signed in 1996. The latter included the gradual creation within the country of religiously based peace groups and initiatives and led to a political climate which made it possible to work for peace.
This essay also examines the Guatemalan background of the Catholic Church's involvement in the peace process and its relationship to Catholic pastoral activities. It argues that the church's intense concern with peace, while reflecting changing theological and ideological trends internationally as well as the deepening social commitment of the post-Vatican II Catholic Church, in many ways originated with its reaction to the institutional and individual losses it suffered in the terrible violence which swept Guatemala between the mid-1970s and the mid-1980s. It suggests that a large part of the modern agenda of the Catholic Church represents a response to that violence--not just in the area of peace itself but also in regard to issues which it came to see as intimately connected to a lasting peace, such as human rights, democracy, indigenous rights, the plight of refugees, and economic inequality. The persecution of the church and its members during the conflict also helps to explain how the hierarchy was able to achieve a remarkable degree of consensus concerning peace related issues despite the widely diverging ideologies and personalities found within this diverse and complex institution. There are several other findings of note. First, religious participation in the peace process (by both church leaders and members) often had a markedly ecumenical character, which is surprising in light of the highly competitive and historically conflictive relations that have characterized inter-church relations in Guatemala. This occurred in the formal negotiations, in which both Catholic and Protestant religious organizations played major supporting roles, and in the internal peace movement, which featured heavy involvement by the Catholic and historical Protestant churches, as well as, to a more limited degree, the newer Pentecostal churches and the Jewish community. Also noteworthy is the fact that the internal peace movement had a dynamic grassroots component. This characteristic resulted in close working relationships between religiously based groups and secular popular organizations, among them a growing variety of Mayan organizations, many of which were deeply concerned with the issues that revolved around the peace process. The resulting synergy helped all of these groups to become vital parts of Guatemala's emerging civil society and to have a major impact on the peace process. Finally, there was considerable international religious support for both the formal peace proces...See the full content of this document
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