Part III : the agony of colonial christendom (1808-1962)

Abstract

The beginning of this period in the history of the Church witnessed the transition from the Patronato system, in which the Spanish State and government officials actually had charge of the church and its mission, to a secular system in which the Church recovered its freedom of action and is now able to address itself to the modification of the unjust structures and thereby recuperate the support and confidence of the masses. At the Same time one can observe the transition from a Christendom in which the Church enjoyed the support of the political system —and where all other religious expressions were excluded from the body —to a pluralistic system in which the Church is required to depend upon its own resources and means in an environment of religious freedom. In this second stage the Church can no longer pull legal strings by its relationship to the State but must work by means of Christian institutions. And the birth of these institutions allows us to see the beginning of the renovation that we are contemplating in our day.

Includes chapter 7.