Reaction & Reform in Colombia

For many Roman Catholics, the decrees of the Second Vatican Council constitute an open-end charter for the church to tackle such human problems as hunger, illiteracy and social justice. Nonetheless, there are also conservative bishops and laymen who cautiously question the kind of Christian action that upsets the political and economic status quo. Last week the tension between Catholic reform and Catholic reaction reached a dramatic climax in the Colombian town of Donmatias, where a parish priest had challenged his bishop in the name of Vatican II.

Two years ago, Father Abelardo Arias was assigned to Donmatias, an impoverished dairy-farming parish of 9,000 in the Andes. A multilingual expert on canon law who studied at Rome's Pontifical Gregorian University, Arias instituted a welfare program for 85 poor families, financed from church funds. Since the bankless village was dependent for loans on half a dozen caciques (local leaders) who charged usurious interest, he organized a credit union. The priest also helped form a cooperative marketing organization for dairy farmers.

Uniforms & Pistol. Arias' economic reforms were dimly viewed by the Donmatias squirearchy. Moreover, three months ago Arias offended his Catholic superiors when he rescinded the expulsion of two little girls from a local Catholic school, which was run by Capuchin nuns. The students, whose father earned $30 a month, had been ejected for failing to have the four required school uniforms.

Supported by Arias' critics, the sisters closed the school and complained to his bishop, the Most Rev. Miguel Angel Builes of Medellin, who promptly sent a successor to take over the Donmatias church. When the new priest arrived, the peasants proved so hostile that he began packing a pistol, soon left town on "vacation." Arias, meanwhile, petitioned the Vatican to overrule the bish op and let him stay.

"In a church school built by the sweat of campesinos," he insisted, "I cannot as parish priest permit a girl to be turned away for being poor." On his own authority, Arias reopened the school with a cadre of newly hired lay teachers, declared that it would be operated in accordance with "the spirit of the council." Last week the Vatican turned down his petition; Arias announced that he would accept the decision and assignment to another parish. The townspeople, however, remained outraged.

Slow to Reform. The conflict between Father Arias and Bishop Builes points up the plight of ecclesiastical reformers in Colombia, a country that has the most conservative hierarchy in Latin America and--with the possible exceptions of Portugal and Spain--in the entire Catholic world. Dominated by their magisterial primate, Bogota's Luis Cardinal Concha Cordoba, 75, the Colombian bishops have been slow to implement conciliar reforms. Colombia has been traditionally hostile to Protestant proselyting, and last year a parliamentary bill that would have legalized divorce for non-Catholics drew the cardinal's opposition, was voted down. Although Colombia's per capita annual income is only $250, the church has made little headway in inspiring rich Catholics to undertake concerted action against massive poverty, has no plans to parcel out its own vast landholdings to the poor.

As a result of the hierarchy's intransigence, some would-be church reformers have been driven to extremes of embittered rebellion. One such rebel was the late Camilo Torres Restrepo, onetime chaplain to Colombia's National University, who was censured by the cardinal for warning that the country might turn Communist unless the church took the lead in promoting social and economic change. In July 1965, Torres was defrocked. He joined a band of Castroite rebels and was killed during a skirmish with the army. Although publicly denounced by the hierarchy. Torres remains something of a martyr figure to younger priests, who prayerfully hope that church-led reform becomes a reality lest Red-led revolution wins over Colombia's poor.

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