The politics of Dissent: The role of Catholics for a Free Choice in Latin America

VAGGIONE, JUAN MARCO

Women, Feminism and Fundamentalism

SWP Publishers

Lugar: Amsterdam; Año: 2007; p. 98 - 113

Religions have moved forward in fields where they were meant to withdraw, generating political dynamics which force the prevailing conceptual frameworks to be rethought and to the design of new strategies. The main purpose of this article is to analyse two opposed dynamics that make the complex politicization of religion vis-à-vis sexual and reproduction rights apparent. In first place, we must take into consideration the role played by the Catholic hierarchy as the main obstacle in the sanction and effective validity of rights in favour of women and sexual minorities, an obstacle that does not only exist at a religious/moral level but also at the level of public and legal discussions. The thesis of this article is that the Catholic Church has managed a strategic adaptation in its defence for the traditional family because without renouncing to its privileges as a religious institution, it claims rights as a political actor. The strong influence, but paradoxically, the greatest weakness of the Church as a sector of power in Latin American democracies lies greatly within this duality (religious / political). Secondly, this article rescues the existence of religious pluralism in Latin America as a political phenomenon, particularly, the one that takes place within Catholicism in the form of religious dissidence. Compared with a Church that politicizes its dogmatic defence of a particular family model, where patriarchy and hetero-normativity are camouflaged, a significant number of believers build their religious identity opposing the official doctrine in sexuality-related issues. For the most part, we must take into consideration the activities of the organizations named Catholics for a Free Choice, which have established an original antagonism to the Catholic Church hierarchy in Latin America. Catholics for a Free Choice exposes the existing fractures between the hierarchy, which is increasingly obsessed with a particular sexual morality, and a significant number of followers who assert their religious identities in a plural and autonomous way. These fissures are significant political spaces that permit going more profoundly into women’s liberation and into the liberation of sexual minorities in Latin America.