Roman Catholic Church in Chile

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The Roman Catholic Church in Chile is part of the worldwide Roman Catholic Church .

history

The Church of Chile that emerged with the colonization got its first bishop in Santiago de Chile in 1561 , who was followed by a second in Concepción in 1563. Always dependent on the colonial rulers in Europe, the church structure did not develop independently until the beginning of the 20th century, even if the dependency on European missionaries remained for a long time.

After numerous cases of sexual abuse , all Chilean bishops, more than 30 in total, offered Pope Francis their resignation on May 18, 2018 . For the first time in the history of the Catholic Church, an entire bishops' conference submitted its resignation. In June 2018 the Pope accepted the resignations of the bishops Gonzalo Duarte García de Cortázar , Juan Barros Madrid and Cristián Caro Cordero . Besides the 61-year-old Barros, the bishops had already reached the retirement age of 75 years. At the end of June 2018, the Pope also accepted the resignation offers from Bishops Alejandro Goić Karmelić in the Diocese of Rancagua and Horacio del Carmen Valenzuela Abarca in the Diocese of Talca .

organization

The Roman Catholic Church in Chile has 26 dioceses in 5 ecclesiastical provinces. 11,606,000 Catholics, 69.96% (2002) of the population, live in them in 920 parishes. 1,156 diocesan and 1,155 religious priests, supported by 5,559 religious sisters, show the picture of a severe shortage of priests , but in 2010 Chile had more vocations than many other countries in South America .

The chairman of the Chilean Bishops' Conference has been Santiago Silva Retamales , Military Bishop of Chile , since 2016 . The Apostolic Nuncio has been Archbishop Alberto Ortega Martín since October 2019 .

literature

in order of appearance

  • Carlos Silva Cotapos: Historia Eclesiástica de Chile . Imprenta San José, Santiago de Chile 1925.
  • Fernando Aliaga Rojas: Iglesia en Chile. Contexto histórico . Ediciones Paulinas, Santiago de Chile, 3rd, expanded and revised edition. 1989.
  • Michael Ramminger: "... We were church ... in the midst of the poor". The Christian Legacy for Socialism in Chile 1971–1973 . Edition ITP-Kompass, Münster 2019, ISBN 978-3-9819845-2-1 .

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. All Chilean bishops submit their resignation. Süddeutsche Zeitung from May 18, 2018
  2. ^ Pope accepts the resignation of three bishops. Spiegel online from June 11, 2018
  3. Consequences of dealing with abuse. Domradio from June 28, 2018
  4. ^ INE - Instituto Nacional de Estadisticas de Chile ( Memento of July 1, 2010 in the Internet Archive )