"The Secular" in Tribuna Católica: apostolate and its "evangelizing mysticism"

Abstract

The educational field has meant a territory in dispute throughout Uruguayan history. The
secularist tendency, hand in hand with the Batllista reforms at the beginning of the twentieth
century, pushed the balance in their favor and they argued against the interests of the Church.
Batllista's hegemony and its reformist profile generated deep resistance that sought to put a brake
on the pre-existing order. The coup d'état promoted by Gabriel Terra in 1933 received the support
of the conservative sectors of society and provided the favorable context for the counteroffensive of a Church diminished in its powers at the social level. The Catholic laity responded to the call
of Pope Pius XI and through Catholic Action organized on several fronts in defense of the faith
and the place they considered genuine for it. The Tribuna Católica Magazine is part of this new
strategy of organization, strengthening and expansion of the Catholic faith in our territory. In this
case, it is intended to account for the debates, positions, strategies and arguments embodied in
the Revista Tribuna Católica, linked to the educational sphere and secularism, in the first years of
its edition, which coincide with the government in the hands of the terrismo (1934 - 1938).
Therefore, the educational axis is used as the center of analysis, in turn, the present analysis
raises the need for an essential vision of this issue from a transnational perspective.