Complete Thesis_double spaced abstract.pdf

During the 1970s and into the 1980s the Catholic Church no longer acted as a monolithic
entity, taking orders from the top down. The 1976 earthquake highlighted divisions between the
church hierarchy, still staunchly conservative, and the parish priests, who were more willing to
embrace tenets of Liberation Theology. While Liberation Theology had already begun to take
hold in Latin America, including in Guatemala, during the previous decade, the 1976 earthquake
was the catalyst fusing the ideological tenets of Liberation Theology with the deteriorating social
conditions experienced by a majority of Guatemalan’s. The Catholic Church created many
smaller subsidiaries and organizations to address the natural disaster, and in doing so provided
many opportunities for sympathetic priests and nuns operating at the local levels to be influenced
by and react to the worsening social conditions in rural Guatemala. Catholic Action was one of
the groups that worked to organize cooperative movements in the rural areas, local indigenous
movements promoted literacy, healthcare, and worked toward gaining political representation.
The Cardinal in Guatemala did not approve of or support the work of parish priests and nuns
organizing the rural proletariat. Priests and nuns were routinely exiled for openly disagreeing
with church hierarchy. In 1978 after the massacre at Panzos Catholic priests were blamed by the
Defense Minister for inciting “Indian unrest”, the priest participating in the march was deported
(Human Rights Violations, 549). In 1979 seven bishops resigned to protest the increasing
military violence against priests and nuns, but Cardinal Casariego refused to denounce the
violence against the church. When the Pope visited Guatemala in 1983, during General Montt’s
short reign, he denounced the violence against the indigenous populations and supported their
efforts to oppose such treatment. The Pope’s sharp criticism of General Montt added momentum
to the movement to overthrow General Montt. The church hierarchy in Guatemala would not
officially support the position of those working on the ground in rural areas until the late 1980s.
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