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. "Exhaustively researched and very well
written, Susan Fitzpatrick-Behren's account of the Maryknoll
congregation in Peru from 1943 to 1986 is a remarkable history.
During these decades, the Catholic Church and Peru both underwent
very profound transformations; Fitzpatrick-Behrens has analyzed
those changes and the interaction between the church and the
Peruvian government with great skill and insight."--Scott P.
Mainwaring, Eugene and Helen Conley Professor of Political Science
and director of the Kellogg Institute for International Studies,
University of Notre Dame
General
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