From Defenders of the People to Defenders of the Faith

In an era of dramatic Protestant growth and increasing Vatican conservatism, the continued viability of the "progressive" Catholic church in Latin America has been the subject of growing debate. Once heralded as a harbinger of religious and political change in the region, the progressive church is seen by a growing number of observers as an increasingly marginal force within many of the national institutions it once appeared to dominate (Cleary and Stewart-Gambino, 1992; Daudelin and Hewitt, 1995). Of particular interest to observers of this decline has been the fate of grassroots movements associated with progressive church activation on the political front. Given their prominence throughout the region in the 1970s and 1980s, much of the attention, not surprisingly, has focused on the continuing fortunes of the comunidade eclesial de base (base Christian community-CEB). Believed to number in the tens of thousands and active in a range of political hot spots, among them Nicaragua, Chile, Brazil, and El Salvador, the CEBs have been interpreted historically as an expression of the popular will for liberation in both religious and political terms. Yet, with the progressive church in retreat, the groups' future as a force for popular activism has been placed in question. The CEBs, consequently, find themselves in a situation not unlike that of many other popular movements throughout Latin America that appear to be suffering a similar fate (see Alvarez and Escobar, 1992; Oxhorn, 1995).