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The Catholic Diocese: ATransversalized InstitutionRenée De la TorreVersion of record first published: 02 Aug 2010.

To cite this article: Renée De la Torre (2002): The Catholic Diocese: A TransversalizedInstitution, Journal of Contemporary Religion, 17:3, 303-316

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Journal of Contemporary Religion, Vol. 17, No. 3, 2002pp. 303–316

The Catholic Diocese: A TransversalizedInstitution1

RENEE DE LA TORRE2

ABSTRACT The Catholic Church is built, on the one hand, upon a hierarchical structureand vertical relationships, with strati�ed duties, centered around an organizationalculture which is based on strict obedience to institutional directives and which has amonopoly on the administration of the goods and resources concerning salvation. On theother hand, since the Second Vatican Council, the Church has proposed to incorporatelay people into God’s Kingdom, a development which represents an opening to the activeparticipation of diverse groups and a redistribution of access to the goods of salvation.Analysts may take a position one way or the other regarding their de�nition of theChurch, and some even state the existence of a dominant church and a people’s church.In contrast to both these perspectives, this paper looks at a methodological and theoreticalmodel for studying diversity within Catholic unity. The model is based on the conceptof the ‘transversalized institution’ as it is applied to the way in which Guadalajara’sdiocese functions.

Introduction

The Catholic Church has confronted secularization through two processes: byadapting itself to modernity and by reconquering secularized spaces(Dobbelaere, 1981; Poulat, 1994). This means that secularization does not affectCatholicism in a lineal way or affects only one of its currents. Rather, it has animpact on internal diversi�cation that gives rise to the formation ofsub-identities which represent different—even antagonistic—versions, but whichdo not cause ruptures in the Catholic identity (Gimenez, 1993). Nor is its impactonly external to the Church, as it manifests itself transversally through acomplex movement that, although it comes from outside, cuts across theinstitution and reacts dynamically in search of the christianization of secularsociety. A clear, concise image of the effects of secularization on the CatholicChurch is that provided by Emile Poulat: “The churches have won in libertywhat they have lost in authority” (Poulat, 1999: 97).

Two theoretical-methodological approaches are commonly used to study theinstitution of Catholicism. The �rst is a traditional position which examines thedynamics of the institution from the normative perspective of its hierarchicalorder, dogmas, and norms. This approach may confuse the study of religionwith that of its hierarchy. The second approach studies the emergence of newreligious movements on the margins of institutions. The proliferation of newgroups and movements within Catholicism since the second half of the 1960sexpresses the search for alternative ways of responding to the current needs ofindividuals and social groups through the symbolic resources of religious

ISSN 1353–7903 print/ISSN 1469-941 9 on-line/02/030303-14 Ó 2002 Taylor & Francis Ltd

DOI: 10.1080/135379002200000823 5

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systems. However, studies which are based on monographs about these Catholicmovements generally omit the relationship between such emerging movementsand the normative, structural framework of Catholicism. This second tendencyannounces the crumbling away of churches, as they gradually lose believers andpractitioners who prefer to live their religiosity on the edges of authoritativestructures, dogmas, and institutional norms.

Given this panorama, it is necessary to look for answers regarding the effectswhich the diversity of lay participation has on the transformations of thefunctional and structural relationships of the Catholic institution as well as onthe transformations brought about by the action of the diverse lay participationwith regard to delimiting the specialized boundaries between the sacred andprofane and the religious and secular.

The present study deals with a wide range of lay associations in Guadalajara,Mexico’s second-largest city, which has a population of approximately three anda half million inhabitants, the vast majority (97%) of whom are Catholic. Ofthese, 14% participate formally in Catholic associations (Fortuny, 1999). To studythe Catholic institution of Guadalajara it is necessary to locate the project in itscenter of operations: the diocese of Guadalajara itself, to take into account itshierarchical structure, its internal composition, the way in which it operates andorganizes itself as well as its procedures and methods of pastoral work.

Today, the diocese of Guadalajara comprises 283 parishes, which represent 5%of the national total of parishes. There are also 122 centers for training monks,nuns, and priests—32% of the national total of such centers. The diocese has 778parish priests, 250 priests from other congregations, and 2,500 nuns. There are anestimated 150,000 lay people (seculars) who participate in organizations andmovements in the Catholic Church; 50,000 of these are involved in the DiocesanCommission of Lay People. (Siglo 21, 10th October, 1993: 6)

The current form of diocesan organization is a response to the results of the‘Organic Pastoral Plan’ which links the secular organizations and movements ofthe Archdiocese of Guadalajara to the ecclesiastical hierarchy as follows: thepastorate is co-ordinated and directed by the Vicaria Episcopal de Pastoral(Episcopal Vicarage for the Pastorate). This is an organisation of the Bishopthrough which integrated pastoral work in the dioceses is promoted,encouraged, and co-ordinated. The Vicaria Episcopal de Pastoral consists of theauxiliary bishop, the Episcopal Pastoral Vicar, the Diocesan Pastoral Vicar, andthe vicars of the ten pastoral zones. This body includes a diocesan group forpastoral re�ection, a co-ordinating group for functional pastoral work, and agroup which co-ordinates the territorial pastorate. Lay people have access toparticipation in both the functional pastorate and the territorial pastoratethrough lay commissions and the section of the social pastorate.

The functional pastorate refers to the co-ordination of the projects and activitiesof secular organizations and movements from the seat of the diocese and theirlinks to the seat. Although in many cases such organisations workindependently of the parishes, the intention is for them to provide services to the‘territorial pastorate’. The ‘Lay Diocesan Commission’ (Comision Diocesana deLaWcos) began its activities in 1981. Its objective is to “Encourage and coordinatethe participation of lay people in evangelization by unifying the criteria thatmake them more aware of—and responsible for—their transforming mission inthe world for the greater growth of the faith, and by promoting their formation

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The Catholic Diocese: A Transversalized Institution 305

in the light of the New Evangelization” (Arquidiocesis de Guadalajara, 1990).The Commission is presided over by a co-ordination team comprising a layperson and a priest-assessor. It is organized in three sections: ‘juvenile’ (it bringstogether 22 associations and movements); ‘family’ (with nine apostolicorganisations); and ‘diverse organisations’ (with 30 registered groups). Eachsection is represented by a lay person and a priest assessor.

The territorial pastorate is devoted to organizing and unifying the evangelizingactivities of pastoral agents (priests, monks, nuns, lay people). These agentswork in the parishes, through a system of ecclesiastical territories that includeszones, decanatos (an intermediate division which includes ten neighboringparishes), and parishes. These zones are laid out according to the ‘DiocesanPastoral Plan’ and each includes three or four decanatos. There are nine zones inthe diocese of Guadalajara. An Episcopal Vicar presides over each zone.

In the city of Guadalajara, there are 31 decanatos that constitute the “decisivespace for promoting and encouraging the organic pastorate” (Arquidiocesis deGuadalajara, 1993: 228). The next level of organization is the parish, representedby a parish priest. The aim of the renovation of parishes undertaken in the 1980swas to promote a greater sense of community and a planned, uni�ed pastorate.In the diocesan plans for the pastorate, the parish is given high priority. Theintention is to set up the parish as the center of smaller ecclesiasticalcommunities in order to promote wider participation by lay people andintegrate the functional secular movements and organizations in the challengesand projects of the Church in general.

The project of parish renovation is the Church’s attempt to achieve betterperformance at the parish level. Its ambitions were spelled out in the promotionof three key elements: 1) the presence of the Kingdom of God, 2) EcclesiasticalCommunities, and 3) the construction of ‘God’s Church-Village’. As we shall seebelow, this integrating project presents dif�culties because of tensions amongthe various ways of understanding the action of Catholics in society, amongdistinct evangelizing projects (often contradictory in themselves), the articulationof the ‘functional’ and ‘territorial’ pastorates, and the margins between libertyand obedience present in the relationships between lay people and priests, onthe one hand, and movements and parishes, on the other.

Diversity: Verticality or Horizontality

Can we speak of a community of Catholics? Can we continue to speak of theChurch? Is the concept of the Church useful for understanding the diversityamong Catholics? How are the multiple forms of ‘being’ and ‘doing’ Churchadministered and negotiated? In order to explain this relationship, I suggest weconsider the Catholic Church in terms of transversality, a concept that allows usto conceive this institution as a place made up of both vertical and horizontalrelationships (Guattari, 1976). The concept of transversality supposes that aninstitution is not limited to the objective laws that establish it, but includes theintersections of group aspirations and strategies which cross it from differentpoints—within and without, above and below—and the control of which doesnot necessarily radiate out from the center to the periphery (Foucault, 1985).However, as such aspirations and strategies crisscross the institution, theyproduce spaces of con�ict that traverse and penetrate the institution.

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The transversalized institution is a space where struggles take place. Thesestruggles may have different causes—distant, but at the same time present—thatconnect them with transnational networks and organizations whose projects andmodels for ‘being Catholic’ cross through the dioceses, penetrate it, and give itform. They also con�gure ideologies and behavior, but at the same time gobeyond the radius of action of the dioceses and widen it.

The problems that individuals encounter are diverse and the forms of theirsearch for answers also express diversity. The conformation of Catholic identitiesdoes not only depend on the place people occupy in the class system, althoughthis factor has not lost its importance for some groups whose marks ofdifferentiation are those of their class position. This is the case of theEcclesiastical Base Communities. These communities of Catholics were inspiredby the Theology of Liberation which emerged in Guadalajara in the 1970s andthey constructed a popular consciousness among Catholics based on the identityof poverty. By contrast, the conservative civic movements of the right promotea bourgeoisie endowed with both the political and the moral capacity to directsociety. The new Catholic movements also respond to other indicators of socialidentity, more closely related to symbolic demands for social recognition, suchas women’s movements represented by the Catolicas por el Derecho a Decidirgroup (Catholics for a Free Choice) and the Movement Barrios Unidos en Cristo(Neighborhoods United in Christ)3 whose objective is to achieve dignity andsocial respect for an identity which is stigmatized due to its way of life,language, attire, and attitudes. At the same time, we �nd a growing search forspiritual alternatives that are increasingly subjective and less institutional, formystical experiences that are more spontaneous, and for mystery andextraordinary experiences that neither modernity nor the traditional forms ofreligion can offer. On the one hand, these quests track the sacred in a variety ofsocial places: in science, in spectacles, in astrology, in the arcane knowledge ofancient cultures, and in a nebulous esotericism. At the same time, however, theyrevitalize the ways of experiencing the sacred within religious institutions. Thisis the case of the Movimiento de Renovacion Carismatica Catolica (CharismaticCatholic Renovation Movement) which brings about the intersection of theMagisterio (part of the institutional structure) of the Church and the spiritualismcharacteristic of the Pentecostal movements that originated in North America.This is also the case of the new forms of ‘consuming religion a la carte’, whichrefers to a ‘subjective consumption’ of various religious and secular traditions.On the other hand, given the profound and accelerated changes in the use ofspatial and temporal units generated by the processes of globalization, the needto relocate that which is global is being satis�ed to a great degree through thepractice of popular religiosity. This is because popular Catholicism not onlyprovides a place of resistance to of�cial or institutional forms, but also operatesas a symbolic reference that provides meaning which can produce sharedsentiments of collective belonging (in the spatial sense) and continuity with thetradition (in the temporal sense).

Just as the social, economic, political, and cultural circumstances in whichbelievers act are changing, lay people wish to transform the standardizedmodels of access to—and the distribution and authorization of—the means ofsalvation. Their transforming capacity is not to be found in ruptures withCatholicism, but rather in their ability to subvert the institutional order by using

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The Catholic Diocese: A Transversalized Institution 307

symbolic resources for purposes and references that are foreign to the Catholicinstitution.

Although many New Religious Movements announce that they are notinterested in bringing about political changes in society, it is not only in thearena of formal politics where transformations of power occur. Power is alsorede�ned in private and group contexts. The New Religious Movements arein�uenced by contact with a variety of movements that do not respond toCatholic doctrinal orthodoxy. The Charismatic Renovation Movement, forinstance, is in�uenced by the Pentecostal Protestantism that developed in theUnited States, while the Ecclesiastical Base Communities are in�uenced by theTheology of Liberation that incorporates the Marxist concept of class struggle asthe ‘crucible’ for theological re�ection in favor of the poor. The New AgeMovement is in�uenced by distinct matrixes of traditions of thought, includingscience, oriental and pre-hispanic worldviews, the esoteric arts, the tradition ofpopular Catholicism, ecology and astronomy, among others, while theNeighborhoods United in Christ Movement is in�uenced by the secular cultureof rock.

These New Religious Movements are not only a result of the secularization ofreligion, but also represent—in a fundamental way—an alternative path towardsthe reconsecration of modern society.

The Tendencies of Diversity

The New Religious Movements within Catholicism can be classi�ed according tofour basic tendencies:

Integralists: There exists a strengthening of integralist Catholic groups andmovements whose objective is to extend the dominion of a traditional,authoritarian religious order over secular society. These movements are inspiredby the myth of an ideal past that nurtures their goal of restoring a Christianorder in society. They operate on multiple fronts, from public moralizingcampaigns and the defense of human rights (especially the rights of freedom ofbelief, freedom of religious choice, freedom of religious association, and the rightto life) to militant incorporation in the leadership of right-wing political parties.This current is made up of a variety of confessional, civic, and political groupswhich operate through a social network of intermediate organisations; thesefunction as a means of communication for the distinct groups, including privateschools, chambers of commerce, civil organizations, and political parties. Amongthese groups are tendencies toward Catholic integration in religious movements,such as the Lefevristas, the Opus Dei, the Legionnaires of Christ (Legionarios deCristo), the New People (Gente Nueva), and the Christian Family Movement(Movimiento Familiar Cristiano); in civic organisations of Catholic inspiration,such as Provida, Fundice, the National Union of Parents (Union Nacional de Padresde Familia), the National Civic Feminine Association (Asociacion Nacional CWvicaFemenina), and the converging front of the Public Opinion Alliance Force (FuerzaAlianza Opinion Publica); and in right-wing political organizations, includingDHIAC (Desarrollo Humano Integral, A.C., ‘Integral Human Development’),whose leaders were incorporated in the National Action Party (Partido AccionNacional or PAN).

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Revitalization: This tendency refers to the New Religious Movements thatintroduce novel concepts in order to revive older ideas. Although emphasis isplaced on the spiritual revitalization of the meaning of religion and not onbringing about political or structural changes in society, they are movementsthat modify the way in which power relations are conceived and they situatethemselves in such relations. One of the principal characteristics of these newreligious movements is that they are organized through relations of charismaticauthority, which question and compete with the bureaucratic relationshipscharacteristic of the social structure of the Church. Another important element isthe way they strengthen communitarian ties which in extreme cases replace thevertical ties with the institutional hierarchy. A third signi�cant aspect is thatthey offer spiritual mobility in place of social or institutional mobility to whichtheir members are denied access. They question the monopoly of theadministration on the means of salvation and the bureaucratic distribution ofecclesiastic authority. On the other hand, they put the state of grace andreligious experience within the reach of everyone. In this way, they bring abouta rede�nition of power that generates new possibilities in terms of positioningthemselves in relation to the established order. Two cases representative of thiscurrent were studied: the Movement of Charismatic Renovation in the HolySpirit (with its internal variations) and the Neighborhoods United in ChristMovement.

Rationalization: This tendency creates the myth of an ideal future andconstructs a new de�nition of the sacred and a new social order. The Theologyof Liberation and its group expressions through the Ecclesiastical BaseCommunities, for example, are not only the result of the secularization ofreligion, but also—in a fundamental way—represent a path toward thereconsecration of modern society that visualizes the transformation of the socialstructures of domination as the daily ful�llment of God’s plan (Jules-Rosette,1985). Ecclesiastical Base Communities (EBCs) are small Bible study groupswhose members get together on a weekly basis to re�ect upon their everydayproblems and look for community-oriented solutions in the light of the HolyScriptures. From the very beginning these groups distinguished themselves fromother parochial groups in that their meeting place was not the church.Furthermore, their �eld of action no longer included only parochial activities,but also the transformation of their social milieu. Their position with regard tothe church hierarchy was more autonomous: as they were not of�ciallyrecognized (as were groups, such as Accion Catolica), their organizationdeveloped through informal networks and connections with the ecclesiasticinstitution. Indeed, the communitarian model of the EBCs challenged themonopolistic mechanisms of the administration of the sacred that characterizesthe Catholic Church and so vindicated the idea that sancti�cation requiresneither the authorization nor the co-operation of the ecclesiastical hierarchy, butis present in the daily �ow of everyday life (Lehmann, 1996). In the �eld ofethics, the opposition between good and bad is relativized in terms of what isjust and unjust (Champion, 1995: 712). The Bible is used as a book thathistorically documents and encourages in a utopian way the processes ofmankind’s religious and social liberation. The everyday action that shows apreference for the poor and a community action program that looks to establishmore just and egalitarian relationships and solidarity are inscribed in a model of

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The Catholic Diocese: A Transversalized Institution 309

religious salvation that proposes a new social order as the realization of God’sKingdom on Earth. This is clearly in evidence by the consecration of thecommunity identity that conceives of this new domestic Church as ‘God’sVillage’.

Diffuse Religiosities: These are characterized by a diverse, dynamic network ofadherents with diffuse beliefs. They are believers who, on the one hand, reinventa reference to the Catholic tradition that allows them to ascribe themselves to animagined community. At the same time, they incorporate beliefs from heterodoxframeworks. These groups relate to the Catholic Church in a selective manner,but they reject the institution as a regulator of its practices and beliefs andemphasize personal mystic experience to legitimize belief. They imprint theirpractices and beliefs with multiple meanings and in some cases succeed inconstituting new syncretisms that forge their identity. Their beliefs loseinstitutional coherence as they are subjecti�ed, but acquire utilitarian andprovisional meaning through the various ways in which such beliefs—togetherwith liturgy, rites of passage, and symbols—are read and used. They promote auniversal spiritual consciousness whose impact consists of wiping away theinstitutional boundaries of Christianity. These religiosities, far from beingoutside the large religious institutions, are located in the interstices betweendogma and the exploration of new ways of experiencing the sacred. Theirpractice is not exterior to the Catholic community, but cuts through it, becausethey are Catholics who—although they do not share the orientations of theChurch—“neither separate from it nor allow themselves to be expelled”(Aranguren, 1994: 32). In fact, they construct new senses of belonging amongwhich we can distinguish three modalities: 1) religiosity ‘a la carte’, 2) esotericismas a re-encounter with popular Catholicism, and 3) the New Age re-elaborationof Catholicism. (For additional information, see de la Torre, 2001).

The Catholic Church, while not a democratic, but highly hierarchicalinstitution with precise bureaucratized functions, is also crisscrossed by theaction of diversity. The Catholic Church is a complex institution that cannot bede�ned only by the verticality of its hierarchical apparatus, because within thisstructure, horizontal relations form the basis of the daily interaction of thevariety of lay identities, both among themselves as well as in relation to secularactors; relations from outside cross the institution and give rise to newcollectivized meanings within. In order to approach these three forms ofrelationship that constitute and generate institutional complexity and richness, itwas necessary to pay attention to the areas of tension and contact through whichthis diversity passes and interacts with the formal structure of the institution.The risk of attending to this diversity is to fall into relativism and to bar thepossibility of reaching the relations of power; in spite of the diversity, unevenand unauthorized relationships do exist.

Diversity: The Administration and Negotiation of Unity

How does the dialectic between unity and heterogeneity come about? The voiceof the lay identities is mediated by a double tension found in the interactionbetween the institutional authority, which is required for a group to berecognized as ascribed to Catholicism, and its permanence in the religious �eld.This means being able to have a critical voice without �nding oneself

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‘dis-authorized’ or expelled from Catholicism. However, the capacities fornegotiation and obtaining the recognition of the Catholic hierarchy require thelegitimization and consensus of a community of believers that ascribes toCatholicism through reference to the legitimizing authority of a tradition ofbelief (Hervieu-Leger, 1996). This process is based on the reinvention of theidentity of a given lineage of belief that allows innovations to be inscribedthrough the imaginary recuperation of a founding past written in the historicalevolution of the Catholic tradition.

A mandatory reference point in the invention of such a lineage of belief andits legitimization as a Catholic tradition is connected with two historicalmoments: 1) the model of the life of early Christian communities as recorded inthe Holy Scriptures. This appears as a legitimizing axis to which a variety of laymovements refer—for example, the Catholic Charismatic Renovationreincorporates the scenes of Pentecost as a founding tradition of its particularidentity, which allows it to inscribe itself within Catholicism from its veryorigins and not from the moment in which it was in�uenced by Pentecostalmovements; the Ecclesiastical Base Communities (EBCs) keep alive the record ofthe history of the Exodus and the liberation of the Jewish people and legitimizetheir movement as a model of the life of the �rst Christian communities, basedon solidarity and communitarianism. 2) The appeal to Vatican Council II to referto the authenticity of religious identity in relation to the tradition of Catholicism.Different lay movements legitimize themselves as the precursors of changeswhich were announced by the Church as a way to adapt to the contemporaryworld.

Although the organic model of the diocese foresees the integration of thefunctional and territorial pastorates, in practice the crossing of initiatives causesfriction and con�icts: regarding theological content, the direction of the pastorateor the evangelization of the movement, or the delimitation of parish territory.The cases where I found acute con�ict were in relation to the EBCs and theCharismatic Renovation Movement (CRM). These two cases are antagonistic: the�rst represents the rationality of Catholicism, while the second presents aprocess of rendering what is Catholic irrational. The EBCs constitute apotentially critical and revolutionary potential with respect to authoritativemodels (including those of the Church), while the CRM represents thecharismatic potential that infuses lay people with leadership (it does notrecognize bureaucratic authority) and encourages believers to have a directrelationship with, and experience of, the secrets of salvation.

The Administration of Internal Con�icts

Nonetheless, the fact that the Catholic Church is inclined to maintain a ‘diversityin unity’ brings with it the challenge of conserving unity in the midst ofdiversity. This can be explained to a great extent by the high level of loyalty ofbelievers towards the Catholic Church, which is due to the high cost ofsocio-cultural integration that its members must pay, if they opt to leave it.

Unity in diversity is not guaranteed by communion with respect tofundamental principles, nor by shared sentiments, nor by one unique morality,nor through a consensus on the contents and forms of promoting ‘the commongood’. Rather, it is based upon a power that is able to generate action with

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The Catholic Diocese: A Transversalized Institution 311

respect to possible courses of action. The maintenance of ‘unity in diversity’ issupported by the continuance, rather than the dissolution, of contradictions.

How is the opposition of interests and contradictory meanings organized andnegotiated? Does con�ict point to the rupture or to the reintegration of thecommunity? Does con�ict strengthen or weaken the institution? Can con�ict bea motive for cohesion and unity? How does the Catholic institution administercon�ict? To what degree do the actions of diversity and inter-institutionalcon�ict generate power? It is the interaction between new religious movementsand the ecclesiastical institution that allows us access to a transversalizedinstitution: the permanent negotiation between the formal structure of theinstitution (with its vertical and hierarchical relationships) and the informalpractices and strategies of the distinct pastoral agents (horizontal and emergingrelationships). Placing ourselves in the interstices of these two frameworksallows us to establish the geography of the distinct levels of belonging andrecognition of the lay groups and movements with respect to the CatholicChurch and their implications for acting as catalysts for the positions of powerin the Catholic arena. In order to examine this, I shall look at two caseswhich—despite their differences—are intimately interrelated: the EBCs and theCRM. Their presence inside the Catholic Church reveals an ideological andpastoral con�ict between two apparently contradictory and irreconcilablepositions.

The members of the EBCs distinguish themselves from pious associations andecclesiastical movements by arguing that “We are not a Church movement, butrather the Church in movement” (Sanchez, 1992). For this reason and given thatduring the 1980s, some EBCs went through a process of politicization (strugglesfor land and urban services, solidarity with Christian revolutionaries in CentralAmerica, the defense of human rights) which went beyond the guidelinesestablished by the hierarchy. The �rst strategy which the diocese implementedto weaken the EBCs consisted in removing priests, monks, and nuns whosupported them from their parishes. Many of the groups that continued tooperate without the support of a priest have been severely sanctioned and haveeven lost their authorization as movements within the Church. At present, thereis no of�cial recognition of EBCs as Church movements, nor do they maintaina formal relationship with the diocese. In the face of this exclusion, provoked bythe absence of ecclesiastical recognition and support, many of the progressiveEBC leaders have ceased work in parishes; however, they continue to operatethrough a diocesan organization which operates as a network for solidarity andthe exchange of experience and ranges from local, regional, and national levelsacross all of Latin America. This form of organization is not part of theorganizational diagram of the diocese, but goes far beyond it.

For the regional representatives of the diocesan organization of EBCs, forexample, the last few years have meant isolation from parish groups in the localcommunity and a search for new networks and spaces for struggle that allowthem to work in a collective way with lay people outside institutional limits.This can be seen clearly in the following testimony:

I didn’t understand why many fellow members who were in the EBCsstopped attending everything that had been part of our life: going tomass and all that. But the fact is they are thrown out. When it happened

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to us, we understood that it wasn’t that the others had left because theyfelt ful�lled, superior and everything, but that the ecclesiasticalcommunity had run them off. (interview with Gloria Topete, regionalco-ordinator of EBCs, 9th August, 1994)

Nonetheless, although the EBCs no longer enjoy the formal recognition of thediocesan structure and their activity is increasingly separated from the parishcenters, some militants maintain the struggle for the construction of theKingdom of God in civil society. Some EBCs still continue today in the area ofthe diocese of Guadalajara, especially in the parishes of the southern zone(Polanco, Lomas de Polanco, Tabachines, Lopez Portillo, EcheverrWa, Cerro delCuatro, Santa Anita, etc.) and in the north (La Palmita, Rancho Nuevo, Lomasde Oblatos). In the mid-1980s, the diocese implemented a strategy designed tode-legitimize and dismantle these Communities. The strategy was based onrephrasing and emptying the speci�c contents of the method for establishingsuch Communities in order to create confusion over the identity of the believersthat belonged to them; this eventually weakened the movement. On the otherhand, Charismatic Renovation groups were introduced into parishes thatalready had EBCs. The EBCs responded by camou�aging themselves by usingother names and their presence in society was maintained through the creationof non-governmental organizations, NGOs (de la Torre, 1996).

With respect to the Charismatic Renovation Movement (CRM), its beginningsin the 1970s were encouraged by the diocese in order to stop Pentecostalism andto weaken the EBCs. From 1972 to 1977, the CRM emerged in the form ofdomestic communities along the lines of Pentecostal prayer assemblies thatcongregate around charismatic leaders. These groups are not formallyauthorized (they lack both an organic structure and an ecclesiastical assessor),but the diocese tolerates them. The early groups participated in ecumenicalassemblies with other Christian groups (Protestants and Evangelicals). Theprayer assemblies encouraged reading the Bible, the personal experience ofmanifestations of the Holy Spirit through speaking in tongues (glossolalia), theappearance of ‘gifts’ and extraordinary charismas that lay people receivedthrough the mediation of the Holy Spirit (miraculous sanction, exorcism, radicalchanges of attitude, prophecy, etc.). In 1982, Cardinal Jose Salazar Lopez issueda pastoral letter which was aimed at the co-ordinators of the prayer groups andwhich pointed out the danger of the autonomy and the lack of unity thatcharacterized the movement. Moreover, he observed that the movement was notintegrated in with the ecclesiastical structure and did not obey its ministerialorder. In the same year, the norms and procedures that governed the conduct ofthis movement were established: diocesan assessors were nominated, the groupswere urged to join the Diocesan Pastoral Plan, and warnings were issued aboutthe risks of the spontaneous, miraculous nature of the movement.

By the mid-1980s, the diocese attempted to standardize and bureaucratize thecharisma of such groups by prohibiting meetings with other Christiandenominations, demanding that they respect the liturgical norms of theEucharist, eliminating ecstatic demonstrations, diminishing the miraculous andextraordinary nature of their rituals, and controlling the recognition of theircharismas. An of�cial seat for the movement was established, called the CasaCornelio. From that moment, training courses were given, an organizational

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structure was imposed, and the movement was linked to pastoral work in thediocese.

In contrast to the EBCs, this strategy was apparently more tolerant, althoughequally powerful, because what appeared to be a form of institutional supportfor the growth and consolidation of charismatic groups through institutionalrecognition and mechanisms for unifying them in an ecclesiastical movementended in a process of exercising institutional control over the charismatic powerdeveloped by lay people who questioned and threatened the specialized,hierarchical order of the Church. The Church largely succeeded in taking awaythe autonomy, spontaneity, and power of a movement that from its very rootsre-valued the sacred competences of lay people in the administration of thesecrets of salvation: healing, the direct mediation of the Holy Spirit, their ownlanguage, recognition of extraordinary powers, leadership, etc.

The strategy of institutionalizing the charismatic movement, routinizing itscharismas, and reducing the importance of the presence of the laity thatweakened the authority �gures of the priesthood and the centrality of traditionalrites created con�icting sentiments among the laity. Some valued obedience tothe hierarchy and its dispositions and meekly assimilated those dispositions, butthe majority interpreted this as a relation of con�ict between lay people andpriests, as a struggle between bureaucracy and charisma, and even as aconfrontation over the administration of the secrets of salvation. The followingis a testimony from one of the leaders of the renovation movement:

The priests were a little jealous of the magnetism that the lay peoplehad in terms of attracting the multitudes. They developed a form ofinterrelation different from that of [the priests]. But at the same time[the Church] minimized us because we were unable to speak the wordof God. As the priests began to see the growth of the movements, manyof them felt rejected because they associated the origin of therenovation movement with Protestant movements. The renovation[movement] doesn’t have a Protestant origin. One thing is that theywere ahead of us, but quite another is that the Holy Spirit inspiredCatholic groups only after it had inspired them. It’s not our fault. Wehave taken a different path from that of the Protestants. I believe thatif God, and in particular the third person [referring to the Holy Spirit],bestowed this movement upon the laity then lay people have theobligation to look after it, protect it, and see that they do not structureit. This has been the struggle with the priests. They wish to structurethe movement, because that’s what they are accustomed to. They wantto impose guidelines, the norms we’re going to work with. And theHoly Spirit? Where are we going to send him? That’s the struggle.When some priests have understood, when they have felt it, especiallywhen they have taken a course in renovation, they get a different view,they see it from another angle. (interview with Dr. Ignacio Aceves,Co-ordinator of Apostolates of the CRM, 13th June, 1995)

In 1992, a new advisor for the charismatic movement was nominated. He wasa priest and one of the leading advocates of Theology of Liberation in Mexicowho did not hesitate to accept the appointment. He had in mind transforming

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314 R. de la Torre

this spiritual movement into an evangelizing force that would demonstrateef�cacy in the faith: “I accepted becoming the assistant of CRM in order to doaway with it, because it was contrary to what I conceived and considered thatthe Church in Latin America needed today.” However, he decided not todestroy it, but to make the Renovation Movement into a Catholic movement thatconserves the value of mystical experience together with the value of the socialutility of Christianity. The testimony of this assessor is very interesting in termsof analyzing the strategy:

All the priests who were students in 1968 and were ordained in theyear 1970 and later shared the view that the Christian Catholic faithshould be good for something here in this world (…). In this context,all of the movements with lots of praying, where people lift up theirhands and applaud, well they were all contrary to the validity of faith.So according to our vision, the CRM was an alienating religion (…) thereal opiate of the people. When they offered me [the position] ofdiocesan assessor I �rst thought of destroying it, but later I came to seeit as a challenge, an adventure. I discovered that this Movement wasthe strongest in the entire Archdiocese [and] that more than half amillion members of the Catholic Church in Guadalajara had had somecontact with it. So imagine, for someone in�uenced by LiberationTheology and the ef�cacy of faith to �nd out that suddenly he can leadhalf a million believers. That was the most attractive thing. Not evenChe Guevara, Camilo Torres, Leonardo Boff, or Gustavo Gutierrezcould even dream of that. None of them had such an immediatepossibility of mobilizing half a million people. (interview with thepriest Trinidad Gonzalez, diocesan assessor of the CRM, 5th October,1995)

In this way, the diocese—although it may not have killed two birds with onestone—made sure that it neutralized the disapproved and dangerous elementsof these two extremist positions.

Religious diversity does not weaken an institution, as many have argued. Ifthe Church tolerates such diversity, it does so not only as an adaptive responseto external changes, but because it is also a way of maintaining a balancebetween the more radical extremes of this diversity. The institution’s controlmechanisms and power show ef�cacy not in terms of coercive control, butthrough a generative power which is based on the movement that puts internalcontradictions into action; these then act as the driving force of its dynamismand legitimacy in order to maintain and organize ambiguity and use internalcontradictions as devices of hegemonic power.

The struggle for power among the distinct identities of the Catholic Churchtakes place by vindicating both the capacity to continue being what they are andthe capacity to maintain themselves within the larger unity, that is to receiveinstitutional recognition. The power of the hierarchy, on the other hand, restsupon its capacity to designate those who shall form part of the Catholiccommunity. The hierarchy thus tolerates heterodoxy and, except in extremesituations, does not make use of excommunication.

The other side of the coin is the strategy of exclusion, a powerful weapon forweakening the positive image of a Catholic identity that may �nd itself

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The Catholic Diocese: A Transversalized Institution 315

de-authorized and even excommunicated from the institution. This not onlyrepresents a framework of belonging, but also a source of meaning that can leadto the loss of meaning and representation.

Renee de la Torre Castellanos is Associate Professor of Anthropology at CIESASOccidente in Guadalajara, Mexico. She is a member of the Sistema Nacional deInvestigadores (Level II), author of Los hijos de la Luz (de la Torre, 1995), andco-editor (with Juan Manuel RamWrez Saiz) of La ciudadanizacion de la PolWtica enJalisco (de la Torre & RamWrez Saiz, 2001). Her current research interests focus onreligious movements, urban culture and social movements, institutional analyses, andnew cultural identities. CORRESPONDENCE: Ave. Espana 1359, Colonia Moderna44190, Guadalajara, Jal., Mexico.

NOTES

1. Translation into English by Paul C. Kersey, Head of the Language Laboratory, El Colegio deMichoacan, A.C., Zamora, Michoacan, Mexico.

2. A preliminary version of this article was presented at the XXVI International Congress of theSISR on August 24th, 2001, in Ixtapan de la Sal, Mexico. I would like to thank FernandoGonzalez, Cristian Parker, Fortunato Mallimaci, Meredith McGuire, and Cristina Gutierrez fortheir valuable comments, which were taken into account in order to improve this study. Thisarticle is based on the results of a wider research project concerning religious diversity withinCatholicism, carried out from 1992 to 1997 in the city of Guadalajara, Jalisco.

3. This movement emerged in the Divino Preso neighborhood of Guadalajara, when a group ofyoung gang members experienced an encounter with Christ and founded this movement toevangelize the ‘gang boys’; “the most talked about, hated and recriminated sector of the society.Our objective is to attend to them by bringing the gospel and through the prevention andrehabilitation of drug addiction” (interview with Joel Chavez, founder and director of theBarrios Unidos en Cristo movement, 5th June, 1995). This movement did receive recognitionfrom the diocese and its pastoral work has since spread to other dioceses in the country. (de laTorre, 2000)

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