Sexuality, Religion and Politics in Latin America

JUAN MARCO VAGGIONE

Rio de Janeiro

Congreso; Diálogo Latinoamericano sobre Sexualidad y Geopolítica; 2009

Observatorio de Sexualidad y Política (SPW)

The article looks at the long history of entanglement of religious and political authority in Latin America, which has rendered laicization and secularization partial or incomplete in most countries. It specifically highlights recent and ongoing transformations in the Catholic Church's engagement with politics, particularly sexual politics, in the region, calling attention to its growing influence in public life. While noting that these transformations are in part the effects of doctrinal changes enacted at the Second Vatican Council, the article argues that they primarily reflect a reactive form of politicization that gained strength under the papacies of John Paul II and Benedict XVI, aimed at reversing the advances made by sexual and reproductive rights movements. One notable dimension of the Church's contemporary political articulations is its Janus-faced nature. On the one hand, it claims a privileged status as a religious institution vis-à-vis other religions whose presence has expanded in the region in recent decades, rooted in its official status in Iberian colonial enterprises; at the same time, it organizes its faithful as civil society actors, among others, claiming a legitimate role in democratic public debates. Most importantly, perhaps in light of debates at play in global sexual politics the article problematizes the classical liberal view that secularity requires that religion (like sexuality) remains confined to the private sphere. Despite this long-standing idealized premise, he notes, both sexuality and religiosity have been increasingly politicized, as reflected in the fierce battles underway around abortion, emergency contraception, and same-sex marriages. In this rapidly shifting context, demanding respect for or even the reconstitution of laicité, or secularity, of the state cannot provide a solid basis for the exercise of sexual and reproductive rights.