Latin America is the most Catholic of all continents. All states have overwhelmingly Catholic majorities, and if the current demographic trends continue, by the end of this century more than half of the world's Catholics will be Latin Americans. The church's role in political life has always been a significant aspect of Latin America's social configuration since America's discovery was first financed by “Isabella the Catholic.” As in most parts of the world, the church was long identified with the most conservative stream in political life, supporting, for example, the imposition of serfdom on the Indian population of the New World and the introduction of African slaves. During the Latin American wars of independence, the church hierarchy remained loyal to the Spanish crown, thus clashing with the regimes of the new republics. When some Latin American states entered a liberal phase in the second half of the nineteenth century, the church opposed all reforms in a confrontation that in some cases led to the formal separation of church and state and confiscation of church lands. During most of the twentieth century the church remained, by and large, a conservative body in alliance with the latifundist (landowning) class, preaching obedience to the existing order and opposing social reorganization.

Yet despite its consistently conservative, if not reactionary position, the Latin American church was hardly ever a monolithic body. The lower clergy in particular often sided with revolutionary, antiestablishment political currents.