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Chile: iglesia y dictadura, 1973-1989: un estudio sobre el rol politico de la iglesia catolica y el conflicto con el regimen militar. By HUGO CANCINO TRONCOSO. Odense University Studies in History and Social Sciences, vol. 201. Odense, Denmark: Odense University Press, 1997. Notes. Bibliography. viii, 254 pp. Paper.
Hugo Cancino is a Chilean historian who has lived in exile in Denmark since 1974. He has written a richly detailed narrative of the Chilean Catholic bishops' response to their country's military regime, tracing their evolution from early supporters, to respectful critics and outright opponents, and finally to brokers (among other roles) who helped to persuade opponents of the regime to challenge it within the bounds of a transitional process that the bishops had designed. Conceding differences of style, tone, and practical application among the bishops, he sees them as fundamentally united on both doctrine and social teaching; as opting preferentially for the poor, the persecuted, and the oppressed; and as helping to recreate Chile's democratic and consensual culture and to begin the arduous process of...