Romana

During this year’s Conference on the History of the Church in Chile, held on September 28-29 at the former Museo de la Merced in Santiago, María Luisa Harrison, PhD in History from the Universidad de los Andes, gave a presentation on the beginning of Opus Dei’s apostolic work in Chile. She recently prepared on this topic, together with another historian, María Paz Valdés, a work that has been published in the volume Gentes, escenarios y estrategias. El Opus Dei durante el pontificado de Pío XII, 1939-1958, edited by Santiago Martínez and Fernando Crovetto.

Other presentations during the conference on the history of the Church in Chile dealt with the role of figures such as Cardinal Silva Henríquez and the nuncio Monsignor Sotero Sanz, along with aspects of local ecclesiastical history such as the organization of parishes in the diocese of Concepción in the 16th and 17th centuries.

“The presentation we made at the conference was received with great interest, because there was an awareness that very little was known about the beginnings of Opus Dei in Chile,” María Luisa Harrison said. “At the same time, the research made clear how new the message was, for an important sector of Chilean society, of the call to holiness for all Catholics in the midst of their ordinary circumstances, including those who are married.”