The Maryknoll Catholic mission in Peru, 1943-1989 : transnational faith and transformation / Susan Fitzpatrick-Behrens.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Fitzpatrick-Behrens, Susan.

Contributor:

Helen Kellogg Institute for International Studies.

Series:

Recent titles from the Helen Kellogg Institute for International Studies

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Catholic Foreign Mission Society of America--Missions--Peru--History--20th century.

Catholic Foreign Mission Society of America.

Liberation theology--Peru--History--20th century.

Liberation theology.

Peru--Church history--20th century.

Peru.

Physical Description:

xii, 315 p. : ill., maps.

Place of Publication:

Notre Dame, Ind. : University of Notre Dame Press, c2012.

Language Note:

English

Summary:

Maryknoll Catholic missionaries from the United States settled in Peru in 1943 believing they could save a "backward" Catholic Church from poverty, a scarcity of clergy, and the threat of communism. Instead, the missionaries found themselves transformed: within twenty-five years, they had become vocal critics of United States foreign policy and key supporters of liberation theology, the preferential option for the poor, and intercultural Catholicism. In The Maryknoll Catholic Mission in Peru, 1943-1989, Susan Fitzpatrick-Behrens explains this transformation and Maryknoll's influence in Peru and the United States by placing it in the context of a transnational encounter Catholics with shared faith but distinct practices and beliefs. Peru received among the greatest number of foreign Catholic missionaries who settled in Latin America during the Cold War. It was at the heart of liberation theology and progressive Catholicism, the center of a radical reformist experiment initiated by a progressive military dictatorship, and the site of a devastating civil war promoted by the Maoist Shining Path. Maryknoll participated in all these developments, making Peru a perfect site for understanding Catholic missions, the role of religion in the modern world, and relations between Latin America and the United States. This book is based on two years of research conducted in Peru, where Fitzpatrick-Behrens examined national and regional archives, conducted extensive interviews with Maryknoll clergy who continued to work in the country, and engaged in participant observation in the Aymara indigenous community of Cutini Capilla. Her findings contest assumptions about secularization and the decline of public religion by demonstrating that religion continues to play a key role in social, political, and economic development.

Contents:

Introduction

Maryknoll and the New Deal for Latin America

First Impressions: Maryknoll Priests and the People of Puno, 1943-1953

The Transformative Power of Tradition, 1954-1967

The Limits of Alliances, 1968-1976

Reform, Violence, and “Reconciliation,” 1976-1989.

Notes:

"From the Helen Kellogg Institute for International Studies"

Includes bibliographical references (p. 284-299) and index.

Description based on print version record.

ISBN:

9780268079703

0268079706

OCLC:

794700755

Publisher Number:

2027/heb33977 hdl