The Roman Catholic The Catholic Church, also known as the Roman Catholic Church, is the world's largest Christian church, with more than a billion members. The Church's leader is the Pope who holds supreme authority in concert with the College of Bishops of which he is the head. A communion of the Western church and 22 autonomous Eastern Catholic churches (called church has a dominant presence in religion in Bolivia. The most recent estimation for religion in Bolivia, based on the study of Gallup 2007-2008 and recent data from various NGO's during 2008-2009, shows the following religious situation in Bolivia:
Catholic 59%
Pachamamist (Andean Spirituality) 15%
Not religious 12%
Protestant or Evangelic 11%
Other (Bahai, Buddhist, Hare Krishna, etc) 3%
While a vast majority of Bolivians are Catholic, a much smaller portion of the population participates actively. In the decades following the Second Vatican Council The Second Ecumenical Council of the Vatican, or Vatican II, was the twenty-first Ecumenical Council of the Catholic Church. It opened under Pope John XXIII on 11 October 1962 and closed under Pope Paul VI on 21 November 1965. At least four future pontiffs took part in the council's opening session: Giovanni Battista Montini, who on succeeding (1962-65), the church tried to make religion a more active force in social life.
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Church and State
Bolivia Coordinates: 16°42′43″S 64°39′58″W / 16.712°S 64.666°W Bolivia (pronounced /bəˈlɪviə/ ), officially known as the Plurinational State of Bolivia, (Spanish: Estado Plurinacional de Bolivia, IPA: [esˈtaðo pluɾinasjoˈnal de βoˈliβja]) is a landlocked country in central South America. It is bordered by Brazil to the North’s constitution mandates religious freedom Freedom of religion is a principle that supports the freedom of an individual or community, in public or private, to manifest religion or belief in teaching, practice, worship, and observance; the concept is generally recognized also to include the freedom to change religion or not to follow any religion. The freedom to leave or discontinue, and the government has no record of suppressing any religious groups. However, some Catholic priests are supported by government pensions, in exchange for land that the church ceded to the government in the past. Only Roman Catholic religious instruction is provided in the country’s public schools, but students are not required to attend religious sessions.
Catholicism in Bolivian history
Colonial era
Christianity had its roots in the Spanish conquest; priests accompanied the first military expeditions. The church's organization, personnel, and role in society were all defined early in the colonial era. Pope Julius III In his early career in the Church Julius established a reputation as an effective and trustworthy diplomat, and was elected to the Papacy as a compromise candidate when the Papal Conclave found itself deadlocked between the rival French and German factions. As Pope he lost, or failed to show, any of the qualities which had distinguished his created the La Plata bishopric in 1552; this was followed by those of La Paz Nuestra Señora de La Paz , is the administrative capital of Bolivia, as well as the departmental capital of La Paz Department, and the second largest city (in population) only after Santa Cruz de la Sierra. It is located in the western part of the country on the department of the same name. It is located at an elevation of 3,660 meters above sea and Santa Cruz Santa Cruz de la Sierra, commonly known as Santa Cruz, is the capital city of the Santa Cruz department in eastern Bolivia. The municipality's population was 1,528,683 inhabitants in 2006 and the urban population is 1,545,161 in 2008 (official estimate) which makes it the largest city in Bolivia early in the seventeenth century. A plethora of religious orders — Franciscans The term Franciscan is most commonly used to refer to members of Catholic religious orders, founded by Saint Francis of Assisi. As well as Roman Catholic there are also small Old Catholic and Anglican Franciscan communities. It can also be applied to ideals he inspired in many movements in the modern age, Mercedarians, Dominicans The Order of Preachers , after the 15th century more commonly known as the Dominican Order or Dominicans, is a Catholic religious order founded by Saint Dominic and approved by Pope Honorius III (1216–27) on 22 December 1216 in France. Membership in the Order includes friars, congregations of active sisters, and lay persons affiliated with the, and Jesuits were the most prominent — joined diocesan priests in the colonial ministry. The clergy were largely of European origin. The few mestizos Christianity ; and other religions who joined the ranks were usually admitted as lay brothers rather than priests.
The patronato real (an agreement between the Catholic Church and the Spanish crown) gave the Spanish throne and, by extension, the colonial authorities significant powers in church affairs. Appointments of clergy and bishops normally required the approval of civil authorities. The relationship between church and state was mutual and intimate; each institution had great influence on the other's affairs. In a society where separation from the religious ministrations of the church was unthinkable, the church had great moral influence.
In addition, the colonial church was an extremely wealthy institution. Religious organizations not only owned extensive tracts of land but also served as quasi-official moneylenders to the landed elite and high-ranking officeholders. By the end of the colonial era, a combination of money lending and shrewd real estate investments had made the church the dominant financial power in Bolivia.
Independence
Independence brought some changes to Bolivian church-state relations. The Roman Catholic Church retained its status as the nation's sole religion. Except for a brief period during the 1870s, this pattern continued throughout the nineteenth century. At the same time, however, the new Bolivian government quickly asserted its primacy over the church. In 1826 President Antonio José de Sucre Alcalá (1825-28) took control over the collection of church tithes A tithe is a one-tenth part of something, paid as a (usually) voluntary contribution or as a tax or levy, usually to support a religious organization. Today, tithes (or tithing) are normally voluntary and paid in cash, cheques, or stocks, whereas historically tithes were required to be paid in kind, such as agricultural products (that grown of the, closed all monasteries Monastery denotes the building, or complex of buildings, that houses a room reserved for prayer (e.g. an oratory) as well as the domestic quarters and workplace(s) of monastics, whether monks or nuns, and whether living in community or alone (hermits) with fewer than twelve persons, and seized church lands. These actions permanently weakened the church as a political force.
Further changes occurred in the twentieth century. In 1906 the government proclaimed religious toleration and permitted the establishment of non-Roman Catholic churches. In 1961 the government relinquished its right under the patronato nacional (the successor to the patronato real) to mediate in church affairs. No longer could the government have a voice in conciliar decrees, briefs, or bulls that the pope issued or play a role in the selection of high-ranking church officials. The Constitution of 1967 grants official status to the Roman Catholic Church but also guarantees the public exercise of all other religions.
Freed from direct government control, the Roman Catholic Church in the 1960s attempted to establish a more visible presence in Bolivian society. The country's bishops, organized into the Bolivian Bishops Conference ("Conferencia Episcopal Boliviana"), issued pastoral letters condemning the living conditions of peasants and workers. The bishops established development centers, research organizations, and commissions to address these problems. Many priests, brothers, and sisters took a more direct political stance. The so-called miner priests--oblates assigned to parishes in mining communities--actively defended workers' rights. This experience led to the formation in 1968 of Church and Society in Latin America-Bolivia (Iglesia y Sociedad en América Latina-Bolivia -- ISAL-Bolivia). Employing a Marxist Marxism is a particular political philosophy, economic and sociological worldview based upon a materialist interpretation of history, a Marxist analysis of capitalism, a theory of social change, and a view of human liberation derived from the work of Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels. The three primary aspects of Marxism are: analysis of society, ISAL-Bolivia endorsed socialism Socialism is an economic and political theory advocating public or common ownership and cooperative management of the means of production and allocation of resources as the only means of achieving justice Justice is the concept of moral rightness based on ethics, rationality, law, natural law, religion, fairness, or equity, along with the punishment of the breach of said ethics.
The political stance of ISAL-Bolivia and others engendered a sharp response from the bishops. Shortly after ISAL-Bolivia contended that capitalism had contaminated the church, the CEB stripped the organization of its official Catholic status. In a subsequent pastoral letter, the bishops stated that although priests had an obligation to promote needed social change, they could not identify with specific political parties or movements. The church hierarchy's caution was evident in its handling of the Bolivian Justice and Peace Commission. Established in 1973 as a research arm of the episcopate, the commission quickly became active in defending the rights of political prisoners of the military government led by Colonel Hugo Banzer Suárez Hugo Banzer Suárez was a politician, military general, and President of Bolivia. He held the Bolivian presidency twice: from August 22, 1971 to July 21, 1978, as a dictator; and then again from August 6, 1997 to August 7, 2001, as constitutional President. The government accused the commission of promoting subversive propaganda and deported the organization's key personnel. In their response, the bishops endorsed the commission's human rights agenda but then suspended its operations for two years. The reconstituted commission operated under tighter episcopal controls than did its predecessor.
The return of democracy in the 1980s presented the church with a new set of challenges. Although the CEB recognized that the economic crisis of the early and mid-1980s required strong measures, it publicly questioned the wisdom of the stabilization policies adopted in 1985 by President Víctor Paz Estenssoro. Endorsing the position adopted at the Latin American Bishops Conference in Puebla, Mexico, in 1979, the CEB suggested that Paz Estenssoro's New Economic Policy (Nueva Política Económica--NPE) would generate increasing levels of inequality in society. The bishops followed up this pastoral letter by mediating negotiations in 1986 between the government and the Bolivian Labor Federation (Central Obrera Boliviana).
In 1986 the Roman Catholic Church was organized into four archdioceses In some forms of Christianity, a diocese is an administrative territorial unit administered by a bishop. It is also referred to as a bishopric or Episcopal Area /episcopal see, though strictly the term episcopal see refers to the domain of ecclesiastical authority officially held by the bishop, and bishopric to the post of being bishop. The (La Paz, Santa Cruz, Cochabamba Cochabamba is a city in central Bolivia, located in a valley bearing the same name in the Andes mountain range. It is the capital of the Cochabamba Department and is the third largest city in Bolivia with an urban population of 608,276 and a metropolitan population of more than 1,000,000 people. The name derives from a compound of the Quechua, and Sucre Sucre is the constitutional capital of Bolivia and the capital of the department of Chuquisaca. Located in the south-central part of the country, Sucre lies at an altitude of 2750m (9,000 ft). Its lower altitude gives the city a warm temperate climate year-round), four dioceses In some forms of Christianity, a diocese is an administrative territorial unit administered by a bishop. It is also referred to as a bishopric or Episcopal Area /episcopal see, though strictly the term episcopal see refers to the domain of ecclesiastical authority officially held by the bishop, and bishopric to the post of being bishop. The, two territorial prelatures, and six apostolic vicariates. The bishops had at their disposal approximately 750 priests, most of whom were foreigners. The paucity of priests significantly hampered church activities. For example, the archdiocese of Sucre only had sixty-two priests to attend to the needs of an estimated 532,000 Catholics dispersed over 50,000 square kilometers.
Because of the church's weak rural presence, the vast majority of Indians followed their own brand of folk-Catholicism far removed from orthodoxy. Indians saw no inconsistency in mixing modern technology and medicine with folk curers or indigenous ritual with professed Roman Catholicism. Indigenous rituals and fragments of Roman Catholic worship were interwoven in the elaborate fiestas that were the focus of social life.
The Quechua Quechua is a Native American language family or macrolanguage spoken primarily in the Andes of South America, derived from an original common ancestor language, Proto-Quechua. It is the most widely spoken language family of the indigenous peoples of the Americas, with a total of probably some 6 to 8 million speakers . Some speakers of Quechua also and Aymara The Aymara or Aimara are a native ethnic group in the Andes and Altiplano regions of South America; about 2 million live in Bolivia, Peru and Chile. They lived in the region for many centuries before becoming a subject people of the Inca, and later of the Spanish in the 16th century pantheon was a mix of Christian and preconquest spirits and beings. A deity like the virginal daughter of the Inca The Inca civilization began as a tribe in the Cuzco area, where the legendary first Sapa Inca, Manco Capac founded the Kingdom of Cuzco around 1200. Under the leadership of the descendants of Manco Capac, the Inca state grew to absorb other Andean communities. In 1442, the Incas began a far-reaching expansion under the command of Patchacuti. He sun god was transmuted into a Catholic figure, in this case the Virgin Mary Mary, Queen of All Saints Aramaic, Hebrew: מרים, Maryām Miriam; Arabic:مريم, Maryam), usually referred to by Christians as the Virgin Mary or Saint Mary and occasionally Madonna, was a Jewish woman of Nazareth in Galilee, identified in the New Testament[Mt. 1:16,18–25] [Lk. 1:26–56] [2:1–7] as the mother of Jesus Christ. Muslims. Many of the supernaturals were linked to a specific place, such as lake and mountain spirits. The earth mother, Pachamama Pachamama is a goddess revered by the indigenous people of the Andes. Pachamama is usually translated as "Mother Earth" but a more literal translation would be "Mother world" . Pachamama and Inti are the most benevolent deities and are worshiped in parts of the Andean mountain ranges, also known as Tawantinsuyu (stretching from, and fertility rituals played a prominent role. In the 1980s, Mormons, Jehovah's Witnesses, Seventh-day Adventists, and members of a variety of Pentecostal denominations gained increasing numbers of adherents among the rural and urban squatter populations. Because these denominations tended to emphasize individual salvation and to deemphasize social and political issues, many leftists charged that they were agents of the United States ^ b. English is the de facto language of American government and the sole language spoken at home by 80% of Americans age five and older. Spanish is the second most commonly spoken language government. In May 1989, left-wing terrorists murdered two Mormon missionaries from the United States who had been working in a squatter community near La Paz.
The Cochabamba Bolivia Temple (Mormon)
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(ECP Centre)
Sun, 21 Mar 2010 04:03:16 GM
One researcher trekked to . Bolivia. to play the games with the Tsimane people who hunt and forage for food in the rain forest. Another anthropologist introduced the games to the Hadza living in small nomadic groups on the savannah in ...
Q. Rather than risk democracy his buddies launched a coup, one more Central America country joining the axis of evil, soon to be a nuclear axis of evil. Good thing we have strong leadership in Washington to promote freedom and democracy in the Americas...(please note sarcasm) But the demorats would rather go shake hands with the tyrants trying to topple the democracies in countries like Bolivia, then extend free trade to them that would allow their democracies and freedoms to survive. It seems Washington, the USA, is no longer in the business of supporting freedom (other than gay marriage of course, but the purpose of that is to enable hate crime charges and discrimination lawsuits to destroy organized religion in the USA, other than the… [cont.]
Asked by catawhumpus - Mon Jun 29 06:42:12 2009 - - 5 Answers - 0 Comments
A. Hugo Chavez is not involved. The military coup was carried out by a graduate of the "School of the Americas", former SOA, today called Whinsec at Fort Benning in Georgia. There, high ranking US military staff teach future dictators how to overthrow a democratic government, how to intimidate a whole nation, how to make people "disappear", how to murder properly and how to torture.
Answered by marion.ofsherwood - Fri Jul 3 05:18:18 2009
