The Church and the Poor in Latin America

The chapter on collaboration of the churches of America during the first half of the 20th century is an account of the strong anticlericalist sentiment in many of the countries of Latin America, especially Mexico, as well as of the evolution of a cohesive ecclesiastical and missionary structure in the United States that first took shape in the wake of World War I. The two were intertwined because out of the US experience came the Maryknoll missions, which would figure in the evangelization of the later years, and a clarification of religious and lay constituencies within the domestic Church. The National Catholic War Council, formed during the war as a mechanism of unified action, evolved into the National Catholic Welfare Council, which was intended as an umbrella governance organization but which actually was a consultative body comprising representatives of America's independent dioceses.

Meanwhile, in Mexico, anticlerical policies initiated in 1857 were strengthened in 1917 and again in 1926. Basically, these policies nationalized

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most pressing needs of the continent: the priest shortage, religious education, and the needs of indigenous peoples" (McGlone, 1997, p. 84). In concert with the Pontifical Commission for Latin America, or CAL, CELAM was a vehicle for bishops' conferences and increased cooperation between North and South America. In the mid-1950s, such cooperation led US bishops to authorize diocesan missions in Latin America, which increased during the 1960s. Cardinal Cushing of Boston, who spearheaded the movement, envisioned the missions as a mechanism for invigorating the faith in the US and strengthening the Church profile in target countries. The chapter titled "Mission Surge of the 1960s" gives an account of the enormous social and political changes that surfaced in the context of the Vatican's call for commitment to the special clerical needs of Latin America. The initial call was for 10% of US clerical personnel to serve in Latin America, a goal that was never reached, particularly in light of the shifting demographics of Latin America. Nevertheless, American missionaries were welcomed in Latin America, and McGlone develops the idea that the cross-cultural religious encounters were mutually enriching. The 1960s saw the emergence of Latin
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Approximate Word count = 1394
Approximate Pages = 6 (250 words per page)

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