Recepción y solidaridad del mundo católico italiano frente a la crisis política chilena antes y después del golpe de Estado

The election of the socialist Salvador Allende as president of Chile on September 4 1970 shocked the Italian Catholic world because it made clear that it was possible for a Marxist regime to coexist peacefully with the religious manifestations of its people and with the Catholic ecclesiastical hierarchy. Many publications and exponents of that world then expressed the hope that the triumph of the social and political project of the Unidad Popular could contribute to generating a climate of dialogue and trust between Marxism and Christianity, ensuring that, in the three years of its government, look closely at the progress and failures of the ‘Chilean road to socialism’. And for this same reason, when the armed forces ended Allende’s government with a bloody coup d’état, the Italian Catholic world immediately understood that the were faced with a different military intervention from those experienced in other Latin American countries in those years, since with the bombing of La Moneda palace and the suicide of President Allende, the search for a non-violent alternative to overcome underdevelopment ended dramatically. However, this did not make them lose their interest in Chile; on the contrary, since the local Catholic Church continued to work to defend the lives and rights of the victims of the civil-military dictatorship, the present it as a model for all Catholics to imitate.