ABSTRACT
Religion influences public life and development in Latin America in multiple ways, from policies on reproductive health, to the daily life of the peasantry, to the activity of thousands of social organizations, to indigenous peoples’ struggles for self-government. This influence was nurtured in the colonial period, when the Catholic Church provided a strong legitimating religious discourse for the ruling political authorities that, in turn, facilitated the permeation of the Church into social, economic, and political life. In numerous Latin American countries, the continuity of the political elites after independence and their links to the Church explains the perdurable historical influence of Catholicism.
