Catholicism in Chile

by Bethany Hertrick

From the statue of the Virgin Mary on the top of San Cristóbal Hill to the elaborate cathedrals on nearly every street corner, the prominence of Catholicism in Chile is evident everywhere you turn. Today we had the unique opportunity to visit five historical Catholic churches for our cross-cultural class. We visited la Iglesia y Convento de San Francisco, la Iglesia San Agustín, la Basilica y Museo de la Merced, la Iglesia de Santo Domingo, and la Catedral Metropolitana. While each of these churches has a different story, they all share certain similarities, especially in regard to their architecture.

Today we learned that the three natural laws of Catholic church architecture are permanence, verticality, and iconography. Permanence means that the church must be well-built physically in order to represent that the Church is an enduring and permanent entity. The law of permanence was evident in the massive size of the cathedrals, as well as in the thickness of the walls and columns. Several of the churches we visited have survived multiple earthquakes due to their durable construction. The law of verticality states that the structure of the church must point upward toward the heavenly and eternal. This was evident in that each church consisted of a series of tall arches and had an opening for natural light in the ceiling above the main altar. The law of iconography states that the church must stand out from its surroundings and stimulate meditation. This was perhaps the most obvious of the three laws, because the old church buildings look nothing like the modern skyscrapers that surround them. Iconography was also evident within the church buildings, as each church contained numerous statues and paintings of Biblical scenes that promote spiritual meditation.

One of the most fascinating parts of touring the churches was not the church buildings themselves, but the people within the churches. In every church we visited, we saw people kneeling beside the altars, praying in the pews, and meditating upon images of the crucifixion. For me, the praying people symbolize that the Catholic faith is not something of Chile's past (as the antiquity of the buildings may suggest), but that it is still very much alive and thriving in Chilean society today.