Religious legitimation of violence in Chile and Argentina in the 1960s and 1970s

Abstract

 The article reviews how the religious justification of violence was used by Argentine and Chilean Catholics, both from the progressive spectrum and the conservative spectrum of the Church in the 1960s and 1970s. To carry out the work, the discourses regarding violence of progressive priests in both countries will be analyzed, specifically the Movement of Third World Priests (MSTM) in Argentina and Christians for Socialism (CpS) in Chile, and conservative priests, specifically the military chaplains in both countries. These groups represent very specific actors at both ends of the political-ecclesiastical spectrum, which do not necessarily reflect a majority position in the Church, but in the 1960s and 1970s, these actors had an influence on the discourse and public image of the Church quite important (much more important than their number, for example), so the analysis of their ideas is justified. The comparison shows that the differences did not lie so much in the justification of violence, since both progressive and conservative Catholics used medieval theologians and the concepts of just war and rebellion against tyranny to legitimize certain violence. The fundamental difference is seen rather between the two countries, since in Argentina the discourse of religious violence was much more virulent, while in Chile this discourse remained within institutional channels. This difference had profound consequences for the attitude of the Catholic Church during the last military dictatorships.