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Religion Religion, Politics & State

The Costa Rican Catholic Church, Social Justice, and the Rights of Workers, 1979-1996

by (author) Dana Sawchuk

Publisher
Wilfrid Laurier University Press
Initial publish date
Nov 2016
Category
Religion, Politics & State, Discrimination & Race Relations, Economic Conditions
  • eBook

    ISBN
    9780889209343
    Publish Date
    Jan 2006
    List Price
    $48.95
  • Paperback / softback

    ISBN
    9781554585847
    Publish Date
    Nov 2016
    List Price
    $48.95 USD
  • Hardback

    ISBN
    9780889204454
    Publish Date
    Oct 2004
    List Price
    $89.99

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Description

Provides a new understanding of the relationship between Church and State in 20th-century Costa Rica.

Understanding the relationship between religion and social justice in Costa Rica involves piecing together the complex interrelationships between Church and State — between priests, popes, politics, and the people. This book does just that.

Dana Sawchuk chronicles the fortunes of the country’s two competing forms of labour organizations during the 1980s and demonstrates how different factions within the Church came to support either the union movement or Costa Rica’s home-grown Solidarity movement.

Challenging the conventional understanding of Costa Rica as a wholly peaceful and prosperous nation, and traditional interpretations of Catholic Social Teaching, this book introduces readers to a Church largely unknown outside Costa Rica. Sawchuk has carefully analyzed material from a multitude of sources — interviews, newspapers, books, and articles, as well as official Church documents, editorials, and statements by Church representativesto provide a firmly rooted socio-economic history of the experiences of workers, and the Catholic Church’s responses to workers in Costa Rica.

About the author

Dana Sawchuk is an assistant professor in the Department of Sociology at Wilfrid Laurier University in Waterloo, Ontario.

Dana Sawchuk's profile page