Chile

CHILE. - I. GEOGRAPHY. - A state of South America consisting of the great western slope of the Andes, and therefore enclosed between these and the Pacific in a strip between 150 and 200 km wide and extending 4300 km from N. to S. The great extent in latitude determines different climatic conditions in the different sections. As a rule, one distinguishes: an arid northern region (the Atacama Desert), but rich in mineral resources; a southern one, humid and relatively cold, with good pastures, extensive forests and a stretch of sea suitable for fishing; and, between the two, central Chile, with a temperate warm climate and moderate rainfall, vast flat surfaces irrigated or irrigable. The result is a country of broad economic possibilities, both in the agricultural field (cereals, tobacco, hemp and above all vines), in livestock raising (6,100,000 head of sheep; 2,500,000 cattle, etc., with consequent meat and wool industries) and in forestry (1/5 of the territorial surface is covered with woods, but almost all in southern Chile and still little exploited), as well as in the mining field, which lines up, alongside the enormous resources of sodium nitrate of northern Chile (and of by-products, such as borax and iodine), those of copper (2nd place in world production), iron, gold, coal, rock salt, etc. Industry, of recent date, is unequal to the country's possibilities and needs, but has made notable progress in recent years (especially in the textile, food and steel branches). Trade is predominantly maritime, and relies on numerous ports, the principal of which is Valparaiso, which alone absorbs half of the import traffic.

The population of Chile is fairly homogeneous from the ethnic point of view, being in its great majority of Spanish origin. The Amerindians (Changos, Fuegians and Araucanians) today represent barely 2% of it, and foreigners are little more than that (of whom 11,000 Italians; 35,000 counting also the children born in Chile). The density (7 inhabitants per sq. km.) varies greatly from zone to zone: in 28% of the territory, in central Chile, 86% of the total population is concentrated. The capital, Santiago, is by now a great metropolis (1,300,000 inhabitants in 1947), but only one other city, Valparaiso, exceeds 100,000 inhabitants. The Catholic religion is professed by 95% of the inhabitants; but a large part of the Amerindians is still pagan; there are also small nuclei of Evangelicals and of Israelites.

Chile is a unitary Republic, with bicameral representation. Here is its current administrative subdivision:

TOTAL 741,767 5,479,202 7

Giuseppe Caraci

II. EVANGELIZATION OF CHILE

After Pedro de Valdivia in 1540 opened the northern part of C. to Spanish colonization, the evangelization of the Indians began through the work of the Mercedarians (1548), followed shortly afterward by the Dominicans (1552) and the Franciscans (1553), and toward the end of the 16th century by the Jesuits (1593) and the Augustinians (1595). In 1561 the diocese of Santiago del C. was erected, and in 1563 that of La Imperial. The Araucanians south of the Bio-Bio River, however, resisted colonization and missionary work, destroying in 1598 La Imperial (subsequently the episcopal see was transferred to Concepción) and the few missions of the Mercedarians and Franciscans. In the 17th century the Jesuits, despite the continuous rebellions of the Araucanians, who continually attacked the Spaniards and the missions, pushed south as far as the Chonos archipelago and founded reductions among the Araucanians themselves.

These reductions, after the expulsion of the Jesuits in 1767, were taken over by the Franciscans, who, having founded the missionary college of Chillán (1756), resumed the mission among the Indians. The upheavals of the wars of independence managed to disturb it but not to destroy it; indeed in 1832, with the arrival of Italian Franciscans, it took on new momentum. In 1848 the Italian Capuchins came to its aid, and in 1894 the Bavarian ones. To these was entrusted the apostolic prefecture of Araucania, erected in 1901 and elevated to an apostolic vicariate in 1928. Among the Indians of Tierra del Fuego the Salesians of Don Bosco worked from 1882 onward, founding several stations on Dawson Island. The success of the mission was interrupted around 1911 by a general mortality caused by tuberculosis; few Indians survived. In 1916, with the suppression of the prefecture of southern Patagonia, the apostolic vicariate of Magellan was erected in the Chilean part, which in 1947 constituted the diocese of Punta Arenas.

Since 1939 C. has been divided into 3 ecclesiastical provinces: Santiago, with the suffragans: Linares (erected in 1925), Rancagua (1925), S. Filippo (1925), Talca (1925), Valparaiso (1925); La Serena with the suffragans: Antofagasta (1928), Iquique (1929) and Copiapó (erected as an apostolic administration in 1946); Concepción with the suffragans: S. Carlo de Ancud (1840), Chillán (1925), Temuco (1925), Puerto Montt (1939), Valdivia (1944), Punta Arenas (1947). In addition there exist the apostolic vicariate of Araucania and the apostolic prefecture of Aysén, erected in 1940 with territory detached from the diocese of Puerto Montt.

Giovanni Rommerskirchen

III. ECCLESIASTICAL HISTORY OF CHILE

September 18, 1810 marks the end of Spanish rule, although the struggle for independence dragged on for several more years and the existence of the new State was assured only after the battle of Maipo (April 8, 1818) and the expedition to Peru; it also marks, as for the other States of Spanish America, the beginning of a difficult period in relations with the Holy See. The king of Spain, according to the bull Universalis Ecclesiae of July 28, 1508, had the right of appointment for the episcopal sees of those lands, and Ferdinand VII did not intend to renounce it. The Holy See was concerned, on the other hand, about the grave situation that arose gradually with the death of the bishops, since the Chileans were unwilling to accept those appointed by the king. The Holy See could not consider the right of patronage of the king of Spain null de iure, and did not wish to refuse the requests of archdeacon Cienfuegos, who had come to Rome as plenipotentiary of the Chilean government to request the provision of the vacant sees. Card. Consalvi, secretary of State, devised the sending of a mission, whose head, as apostolic vicar, would have the faculty to confer the government of the three vacant Chilean dioceses on titular bishops. In this way the susceptibilities of Spain were not offended and the needs of the Catholics in that distant country were provided for.

The mission itself, presided over by Msgr. Muzi, and of which the canon Mastai, the future Pius IX, was also a member, embarked at Genoa on October 5, 1823, and stayed in C. for 7 months. It was not possible, however, for it to reach an agreement with the government because of certain claims of interference by the State in ecclesiastical affairs. After the constitution of May 25, 1833, came into force, which in art. 2 recognized the Catholic religion as the religion of the State, it was possible in 1840 to provide for the episcopal sees. Gregory XVI indeed elevated Santiago in May of that year to an archbishopric with the suffragan dioceses of S. Carlos de Ancud, La Serena and Concepción. Under the succeeding pontificates relations between the State and the Church had their ups and downs determined by frequent internal political crises, although no radical measures were taken against Catholicism, which constituted the fundamental religion of the country. However, the ecclesiastical tribunals were abolished, lay cemeteries were established, and the exercise of any worship was permitted. The separation of Church and State, sanctioned in the new constitution of 1925, was the logical consequence of Chilean policy in the preceding decades, although it did not intend to assume oppressive forms with regard to Catholicism, and Pius XI, in the allocution given in the Consistory of December 14, 1925, acknowledged that « it is a separation so friendly that it can be called friendly coexistence, in which the Catholic Church will be able, we trust, to continue its work, beneficial in every field, among that dear people ». In 1939 a new organization of the dioceses was carried out with the elevation of La Serena and Concepción to metropolitan sees. In the Consistory of February 18,

1946 Pius XII granted for the first time to the archbishop of Santiago, Caro Rodriguez, the cardinal's purple. In Santiago there is the Pontifical metropolitan seminary of the Guardian Angels.

Silvio Furlani

IV. ART OF CHILE

The Chilean nation, because of its turbulent political history, was among the regions of South America the most resistant to an artistic affirmation. Only in the mid-19th century did sculpture and painting have their first manifestations worthy of note. Great merit was then acquired by the Italian Alessandro Cicarelli, to whom in 1849 was entrusted the founding of the Academy of Fine Arts and the teaching of painting, which he held for many years. Later, in 1876, another Italian, Giovanni Mochi, continued the didactic tradition, integrating Chilean painting even more into European taste. Among Chilean painters are remembered Nicola Guzmán Bustamante, Pasquale Ortega, Cosimo San Martín. Among sculptors, a notable personality was revealed by Rebecca Matte de Iñiguez, a pupil of Leonardo Bistolfi, whose Derelitta is preserved in the Gallery of Modern Art in Florence. In architecture too the Italian influence was decisive. The first architect to whom public buildings in Santiago were entrusted was Gioacchino Toesca, whose works constituted for a long time the exclusive example for local builders. - See Pl. CII.

For the literature of C.: v. ISPANO-AMERICANA, LETTERATURA.

Giovanni Carandente