La carta pastoral ‟Justo Salario”: el intento de Mons. Thiel por iniciar la Doctrina Social de la Iglesia católica en Costa Rica (1893)

Abstract

This article explains the reasons and political repercussions of Bernardo Augusto Thiel’s (second Costa Rican bishop) thirtieth pastoral letter publication, in 1893. This was concluded through a qualitative analysis of the Justo Salario’s pastoral letter, the Rerum Novarum, the reactions of the civil government to the documents, the attacks from the newspapers and the explanations given by the bishop about his writing. As a result, it was observed that the document represented more than a simple “tropicalization” of Leon XIII’s circular Rerum Novarum, published in 1891 since bishop Thiel used it to incorporate the Social Doctrine of the Catholic church in Costa Rica, which he did in the frame of the presidential election of 1893-1894, when a catholic party actively participated. This study concludes that civil authorities were not willing to accept the clergy’s political representation and considered it a threat to the existing social order reacting against it using different means and methods.