Monsignor Orrego and the conflicts between catholics and secularist in La Serena.

Abstract

In the first period of the Republican era, the cultural substrate of Chilean society was based upon catholic tradition. However, in the mid nineteenth century the freethinking tendencies gained further political and social power, causing the questioning of the upper classes whether it was desirable that the Church had so much influence in the public sphere of the nation. In La Serena, at times of modernity and liberalism, conflict emerged between liberals and conservatives, in which bishop Orrego played an important role preventing the expansion of secularization throughout Chilean society.