Religion in Latin America - Essay Example

In an analysis of the origins of sources provided (historiography), we find that the Murray article was an address delivered to highlight the role and mission of the Catholic Church in Mexico whereas the Sigmund article was delivered at the International Coalition for Religious Freedom Conference on ‘Religious Freedom in Latin America and the New Millennium’. As both these articles are written from the Catholic perspective of history, their perspectives can be greatly prejudiced.

This proved to be the root of many of the disasters to come. During 1824-1830, the US government encouraged the Masonic groups to work on definite plans to remove the Church from its preeminent position in Mexican life. The period from 1828 to 1857 was one of continuous revolution, barracks revolts, and bandit raids which made establishing a more stable Catholic Church in Mexico difficult. The rise of the Liberals altered the position and power of the Catholic Church through a convention in 1856 and the Constitution in 1857 which abolished clerical privileges, forbade the acquisition of income-producing property, abolished the compulsory observance of religious vows, etc.

Porfirio Díaz found ways to allow the Church to exercise its functions and restore its former eminence and his philosophy of Positivism began to give the country an entirely new intellectual orientation. The major points made in the Sigmund article include ‘black legend’, which was spawned by earlier religious rivalries between Catholics and Protestants. The image of the “authoritarian” Catholic Church was the Protestant view of Catholicism according to which all power is concentrated in its “infallible pope”.