From Fascism to Liberation Theology: Catholic Nationalism in Peru, 1930–80

This paper looks at the case of twentieth-century Peruvian Catholicism to ask how it is that the political content of religious nationalism changes over time. In the context of cold war Latin America and in the face of an evolving Church hierarchy, Peruvian Catholics mobilized on behalf of variant, seemingly contradictory social causes. In the 1930s and 1940s, members of Catholic Action groups took to the streets, schools, and courtrooms to defend the interests of the Church against the twin threats of Protestantism and Communism. They drew on the policies of the fascist Catholicism of Benito Mussolini and Francisco Franco. As the Church moved towards the ecumenical and social justice turn of the Second Vatican Council (1962-1965), Peruvian Catholics left behind the reactionary nationalism of the previous generation and began to emphasize “preferential option for the poor.” Both clerical and lay proponents of liberation theology promoted national development through a blend of Marxism and Christianity that called for uplifting the Indigenous and impoverished masses of the nation. This paper aims to show that increased popular participation in socially dominant religious institutions leads not only to increased social justice, but also a weakening of the fervor of religious nationalism.