Chilean cleric whose political engagement aided his country's transition from dictatorship to democracy
Nov 02, 2004
(www.timesonline.co.uk, November 01, 2004) Cardinal Juan Francisco Fresno had a vital role in helping Chile to move from the military dictatorship of General Pinochet to a modern democracy. He initiated the first dialogue between opposition parties and Pinochet’s junta, which in 1973 had ousted the Socialist President of Chile, Salvador Allende, from power. This was a remarkable achievement, especially given that all political opposition to Pinochet was illegal when Fresno became leader of the Catholic Church in Chile in 1983.
Fresno inherited a fraught Church-State relationship: his predecessor Cardinal Raúl Silva Henriquez had repeatedly infuriated the military regime by championing human rights and decrying their abuse. Initially supporters of Pinochet were delighted that Fresno, reputedly a conservative, had been appointed to succeed Silva. “God has heard our prayers,” declared Lucia Hiriart, Pinochet’s wife, on hearing of the appointment.
A more accurate indication of Fresno’s plans came from Cardinal Silva who commented: “Thank God Pancho (Francisco) is in charge. With his temperament he’s more cut out for this job than I am.”
A less combative personality than Silva, Fresno patiently and gently encouraged political dialogue in Chile. He believed that restoring democracy was the “will of God” and promoted rebuilding fragmented political relationships according to his dictum that “Chile should be a country of co-operation not confrontation”.
Appointed leader of the Chilean Catholic Church in 1983 just a month after the savage repression of the first civilian protests against Pinochet, Fresno almost instantly began a series of private meetings with representatives of all political parties in the country. In these, he would ask each leader the following questions: “What are you prepared to do to get democracy? And what civil liberties would you sacrifice short term in order for a restoration of democracy?” Then, Fresno drew up a blueprint for how Chile could return to democracy, which specified that violence could never be used as a political tool. The plan, signed by 21 representatives of 11 parties, was little short of miraculous: Fresno had persuaded warring politicians who had refused to speak to each other since the 1973 coup to co-operate.
However, Pinochet rejected the plan outright, refusing to let it even enter the presidential palace. But it was felt that Fresno, by uniting the political opposition, had laid the groundwork for the 1988 referendum that allowed Chileans to vote whether to keep Pinochet in power.
The country voted by a 55 per cent majority against Pinochet and free democratic elections were held in 1990. But Chile was deeply divided. Pinochet’s opponents loathed the censorship, night curfews and reports of the “disappearance” of thousands of murdered Chileans, their bodies buried in deserts in the north or under the gleaming, modern Santiago banks that symbolised Chile’s “economic miracle”. His supporters acclaimed Pinochet as a hero for rescuing Chile from the severe food and medical shortages, and drastic social instability and strikes that typified the end of Allende’s regime.
Fresno resigned on reaching retirement age — 75 — in 1990, just 15 days after Patricio Aylwin, Chile’s first democratically elected President since 1973, had taken power.
The fourth of five children in an upper-class Santiago family, Fresno was born in the Chilean capital in 1914. He was an outgoing adolescent, who surprised his family by abandoning engineering studies for the priesthood at the age of 20. Eight years later he became a priest and 16 years later was appointed bishop of the new Diocese of Copiapó in the heart of Chile’s mining district. In 1967 he became Archbishop of La Serena, and in the Seventies was made head of Chile’s episcopal Conference.
Leftwingers feared that Fresno, as a reputed conservative, would suppress the work of the Vicariate of Solidarity, a church body dedicated to the defence of human rights, established by Cardinal Silva. Instead Fresno confirmed Silva’s most recent appointments at the vicariate and gave it strong backing, but chose personally to concentrate on encouraging dialogue with all parties.
His commitment to democracy led to frank interchanges with the devoutly Catholic Pinochet and one naval commander in the his Government, compared Fresno to Chapulín Colorado, a bungling monkey superhero in a television series who tried to solve enormous problems with a series of clumsy blunders.
When in 1987 Fresno invited Pope John Paul II to visit Chile some bishops feared that the visit would act as propaganda for the Pinochet regime and, during a tense visit, police dispersed protesters at a papal Mass with teargas. But Fresno believed that the Pope would give new impetus to the movement for democracy, a belief borne out by the referendum the next year.
In a series of interviews given in retirement, on condition that they remained unpublished until after his death, Fresno revealed that he had asked Pinochet to step down from power in 1984. He had also dissuaded Pope Paul VI from excommunicating Pinochet after the 1973 military coup on the ground that many of the soldiers were devout Catholics.
Cardinal Juan Francisco Fresno was born on July 26, 1914. He died on October 14, 2004, aged 90.
Chilean cleric whose political engagement aided his country's transition from dictatorship to democracy