CHILE 2022 INTERNATIONAL RELIGIOUS FREEDOM REPORT

Executive Summary

The constitution provides for freedom of conscience and worship. Religion and
state are separate. The law prohibits religious discrimination and provides civil
remedies to victims of discrimination. The National Office of Religious Affairs
(ONAR) is charged with facilitating communication between faith communities
and the government and ensuring the protection of the rights of members of
minority religious groups.

In September, voters rejected in a plebiscite a draft constitution that included

four articles providing protections for religious freedom. In July, Roman Catholic
bishops released a communique that included criticisms of the draft’s potential
limitations, in their view, of the right to religious freedom. During remarks in
August at a Communal Evangelical Thanksgiving service (Te Deum), Ministry
Secretary General of the Presidency Giorgio Jackson emphasized the
government’s commitment to strengthen the recognition of and respect for
religious and spiritual diversity, without exclusions or privileges. On September
15, President Gabriel Boric refused to accept the diplomatic credentials of the
Israeli Ambassador following the death of a 17-year-old Palestinian in Israel on
the same day. Jewish Community of Chile President Gerardo Gorodischer stated
that President Boric’s action had led to an increase in antisemitic comments on
social media. On September 30, President Boric accepted the Ambassador’s
credentials. In November, Boric condemned the burnings of churches in the
Araucanía Region, likening it to the burnings of synagogues in Nazi-era Germany.
ONAR continued to engage with local authorities in the communities affected by
the arson attacks, including helping to rebuild the damaged churches. In August,
ONAR director Omar Cortes participated in a special session of the Committee on
Juridical and Political Affairs at the Organization of American States (OAS), where
he underscored how engaging religious actors helped improve religious freedom.

International Religious Freedom Report for 2022

United States Department of State • Office of International Religious Freedom
According to ONAR, arson attacks on churches by unidentified individuals
reportedly associated with some Mapuche Indigenous groups in Araucanía
continued for the seventh year in a row. Fire damaged a Catholic church in San
Sebastian de Curarrehue, another Catholic church near the town of Radal, and a
school and church in the commune of Los Sauces. Jewish community leaders
reported an increase in antisemitic social media posts and media publications,
including the publication on July 11 of a “Happy Merchant” Nazi-era meme.

On July 19-21, the U.S. Special Envoy to Monitor and Combat Antisemitism visited
the country and held meetings with government officials and leaders of the
Jewish community. The U.S. Ambassador, Chargé d’Affaires, and other U.S.
embassy representatives met with government officials to discuss reports of
antisemitism, security concerns of members of religious minority groups, and
institutional cooperation between religious organizations and the government.
Embassy officials also met with civil society and religious leaders to discuss
religious diversity and tolerance and to raise incidents of concern, including
perceived threats to members of the Jewish community.

Section I. Religious Demography

The U.S. government estimates the total population at 18.4 million (midyear
2022). According to ONAR’s 2021 estimates, 70 percent of the population
identifies as Catholic and an estimated 18 percent identifies as “evangelical,” a
term used in the country to refer to non-Catholic Christian groups, including
Episcopalians, but not The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (Church of
Jesus Christ), Jehovah’s Witnesses, Orthodox Churches (including Armenian,
Greek, Persian, Serbian, and Ukrainian communities), and Seventh-day Adventists.
In the 2002 census, the most recent that includes religious affiliation, Baha’is,
Buddhists, Jews, Muslims (Sunni and Shia, including those who identify with
Sufism, among others), members of Jehovah’s Witnesses, Seventh-day Adventists,
and members of the Family Federation for World Peace and Unification
(Unification Church), the Church of Jesus Christ, the Orthodox Churches, and
other unspecified religious groups together constitute less than 5 percent of the
population. An estimated 4 percent of the population identifies as atheist or
agnostic, while 17 percent of the population identifies as nonreligious.

According to ONAR’s 2021 estimates, 9 percent of the population self-identifies as

Indigenous, of which approximately 38 percent identifies as evangelical, 30
percent as Catholic, and 6 percent as other; the remaining 26 percent lists no
religious affiliation. ONAR states that many of those individuals also incorporate
traditional Indigenous faith practices into their worship.

Section II. Status of Government Respect for Religious Freedom

Legal Framework

The constitution provides for freedom of conscience and the free exercise of
worship. It states these practices must not be “opposed to morals, to good
customs, or to the public order.” Religious groups may establish and maintain
places of worship if the locations comply with public hygiene and security
regulations established by laws and municipal orders. According to the
constitution, religion and the state are officially separate.

The law prohibits discrimination based on religion, provides civil remedies to

victims of discrimination based on their religion or belief, and increases criminal
penalties for acts of discriminatory violence. The law prohibits discrimination in
the provision of social services, education, the ability to practice religious beliefs
or gain employment, property rights, and the right to build places of worship.

By law, registration for possible conscription to the military is mandatory for all
men between the ages of 17 and 45. Performing alternative service by working
for the armed forces in a job related to the selectee’s expertise is possible only for
those studying in certain fields. The law makes no provision for conscientious
objection. Only ministers or priests from registered religious organizations are
exempted on religious grounds.
The law does not require religious groups to register with the government,
although there are tax benefits for those that do. Once registered, a religious
group is recognized as a religious nonprofit organization. Religious organizations
have the option of adopting a charter and bylaws suited to a religious entity
rather than to a private corporation or a secular nonprofit. Under the law,
religious nonprofit organizations may create affiliates, such as charitable
foundations, schools, or additional houses of worship, that retain the tax benefits
of the parent religious organization. According to ONAR, public law recognizes
more than 5,957 religious organizations as legal entities. By law, the Ministry of
Justice must accept the registration petition of a religious entity, although it may
object to petitions within 90 days if legal prerequisites for registration are not
satisfied.

Applicants for religious nonprofit status must provide the Ministry of Justice with
an authorized copy of their charter and corresponding bylaws with charter
members’ signatures and their national identification numbers. The bylaws must
include the organization’s mission, creed, and structure. The charter must specify
the signatories, the name of the organization, and its physical address, and it
must include confirmation that the religious institution’s charter signatories
approved the bylaws. In the event the Ministry of Justice raises objections to the
group, the group has 60 days to address the ministry’s objections or challenge
them in court. Once a religious entity is registered, the state may not dissolve it
by decree. If concerns are raised regarding a religious group’s activities after
registration, the semiautonomous Council for the Defense of the State may
initiate a judicial review of the matter. The government has never deregistered a
legally registered group. One registration per religious group is sufficient to
extend nonprofit status to affiliates, such as additional places of worship or
schools, clubs, or sports organizations, without registering them as separate
entities.

ONAR is charged with facilitating communication between faith communities and

the government and ensuring the protection of the rights of members of minority
religious groups.
By law, all public schools must offer religious education as an elective class for
two teaching hours per week through pre-elementary, elementary, middle, and
high school. Local school administrators decide how religious education classes
are structured. Most religious instruction in public schools is Catholic. The
Ministry of Education also has approved instruction curricula designed by 14
other religious groups, including Orthodox and Reform Jews, evangelical
Christians, and Seventh-day Adventists. Schools must provide religious
instruction for students according to students’ religious affiliations. Parents may
have their children excused from religious education. Parents also have the right
to homeschool their children for religious reasons or enroll them in private,
religiously oriented schools.

The law grants all religious groups the right to appoint chaplains to offer religious
services in public hospitals and prisons and does not make a distinction between
registered and unregistered groups. Prisoners may request religious
accommodations. Regulations for armed forces and law enforcement agencies
allow officially registered religious groups to appoint chaplains to serve in each
branch of the armed forces, the national uniformed police, and the national
investigative police.

The country is a party to the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights.

Government Practices

On June 28, the Constitutional Convention approved a draft constitution that

included four paragraphs that would establish freedom of religion as a
fundamental right and expand on rights pertaining to religious freedom in the
current constitution. One article established that “everyone has the right to
freedom of thought, conscience, religion and worldview; this right includes the
freedom to profess and change religion or beliefs.” The convention presented the
draft constitution to President Boric on July 4. On September 4, voters rejected
the proposed constitution in a national plebiscite. Prior to the plebiscite, a group
of Catholic bishops released a communique on July 22, calling for each citizen to
have an “informed and conscientious vote” in the plebiscite. The bishops
supported the text’s inclusion of social rights, environmental protection, and
recognition of Indigenous peoples but opposed the proposed constitution’s
guarantee of access to abortion, the proposed legalization of euthanasia, and the
proposed limitations on “the right to education and religious freedom.”
Separately, the Chilean Episcopal Conference questioned whether the text
provided “an adequate social and legal framework to build peace, solidarity, and
justice” in the country.

On September 2, then Ministry Secretary General of the Presidency Jackson and

representatives of ONAR, the Chilean Association of Interreligious Dialogue for
Human Development (ADIR), and the Freemasons participated in a “Call to
Concord” event with representatives of several faith traditions to promote
peaceful dialogue prior to the plebiscite. During the meeting, Jackson expressed
the importance of “putting love above the differences that may exist.”

On September 15, President Boric refused to accept the diplomatic credentials of

the Israeli Ambassador following the death of a 17-year-old Palestinian
reportedly shot by Israeli forces near the occupied West Bank town of Jenin.
Jewish Community of Chile President Gorodischer stated that Boric’s refusal to
accept the credentials led to an increase in antisemitic comments on social media.
President Boric subsequently accepted the Israeli Ambassador’s credentials on
September 30.

On March 5, then President-elect Boric met with 12 Christian, Jewish, and Muslim
leaders a week before his March 11 inauguration. In the meeting, Boric
highlighted the role and importance of collaboration with the country’s diverse
religious communities.

On August 29, government officials participated in a Communal Evangelical Te

Deum organized by the Methodist Pentecostal Church of Chile. Then Ministry
Secretary General Jackson discussed the government’s commitment to
strengthen recognition and respect for religious and spiritual diversity, without
exclusions or privileges.

On June 13, during the IX Summit of the Americas in Los Angeles, ONAR director
Cortes participated in the Second Interfaith Forum of the Americas (FIDELA). Over
100 religious actors and representatives of faith-based organizations and policy
experts from across North, Central, and South America and the Caribbean
participated in the event, which included discussion on vigilance in protecting
freedom of religion or belief and freedom of expression, including in Chile. On
August 5, Cortes participated in a special session of the OAS Committee on
Juridical and Political Affairs that focused on the strategic role of religious actors
in the response to health crises, particularly the COVID-19 pandemic. Cortes
underscored how engaging religious actors helped to improve religious freedom
and counter false narratives surrounding COVID-19 vaccination.

In November, President Boric condemned the burnings of churches in the

Araucanía Region, likening it to the burnings of synagogues in Nazi-era Germany.
ONAR continued to engage with local authorities in the communities affected by
attacks on churches in several regions of the country, including the Araucanía and
Santiago Regions, to rebuild the damaged churches. ONAR helped the affected
churches report threats to police and pressed for increased police monitoring and
patrols of religious buildings in the region.

According to government officials, the country respected religious diversity and

recognized that Jews play a leading role in preventing intolerance. Vice Minister
of Foreign Affairs Ximena Fuentes said that Palestinians and Jews enjoyed close
relations, including through their joint attendance in integrated public schools.

In December, the International Panel of Parliamentarians for Freedom of Religion

or Belief (IPPFoRB), an international network of lawmakers dedicated to the fight
against religious persecution and defense of Article 18 of the UN Declaration of
Human Rights, convened at the National Congress in Santiago for the first time.
Current and former legislators discussed the development of a roadmap to better
address and guarantee all Chileans’ right to freedom of religion or belief. Deputy
Mercedes Bulnes affirmed that the country would continue to collaborate with
IPPFoRB in 2023 to promote religious freedom in the country.

Section III. Status of Societal Respect for Religious Freedom

According to ONAR, arson attacks on Catholic and evangelical Christian churches

in Araucanía Region by unidentified individuals reportedly associated with
Mapuche Indigenous groups continued to occur for the seventh year in a row.
According to media reports, several priests and churches in Araucanía reportedly
received arson threats during the year. ONAR reported that its regional directors
had maintained contact with the churches and communities affected by the arson
attacks and that ONAR held discussions with governors regarding possible
assistance. According to academic and nongovernmental sources, the Mapuche,
the country’s largest Indigenous group, considered most of Araucanía as
ancestral, sacred territory and continued to call for the government to return
lands confiscated prior to the return to democracy in the late 1980s. Some
factions of the Mapuche reportedly continued to use violence, including attacks
on churches and private residences, to demand the return of land.

On January 10, media outlets reported that a fire destroyed the Church of San
Sebastian de Curarrehue in Araucanía, built in 1953 and run by the Piarist Fathers.
The fire also destroyed the offices of the parish in the Diocese of Villarica. On
May 18, news media reported that unknown assailants burned a Catholic church
near the commune of Freire and the town of Radal in Araucanía hours after the
government declared a state of emergency in the region. On June 22, uniformed
police arrested three individuals suspected of starting a fire in the middle of the
former Carabineros Francisco de Borja Church, a church associated with the
country’s uniformed national police, called carabineros, in the commune of
Santiago. The church had been previously burned during riots in 2020 and
subsequently abandoned. On July 29, media outlets reported that at least 15
armed hooded men, reportedly associated with Weichán Auka Mapu, a militant
organization formed in 2010 inside the predominantly Mapuche-affiliated
Coordinadora Arauco Malleco (CAM) operating primarily in Arauco and Malleco
Provinces, intimidated residents of a church property in the Trafún sector of
Panguipulli in the town of Liquiñea and set fire to structures on the site, including
a chapel, destroying it completely. On August 6, a school and a church were
burned in the commune of Los Sauces in the province of Malleco, in the Araucanía
Region. On November 10, unidentified arsonists burned a church in Selva Oscura
and a rural school in Curacautin, both located in Araucanía, on the same day that
President Boric visited the region. As of year’s end, authorities had not detained
any suspects in the arson attacks.

Jewish community leaders again expressed concern regarding what they stated
was a continuing rise in antisemitism in the country. The Jewish community
reported an increase in antisemitic social media posts and media publications,
including the publication on July 11 of a “Happy Merchant” Nazi-era meme. The
meme, which depicted a Jewish man with a hooked nose and a sly smile rubbing
his hands with glee alongside discounted bottles of bourbon and rum with dollar
bills scattered around, was embedded in a newspaper advertisement published in
the daily tabloid Las Ultimas Noticias. In a statement on its Twitter account, the
Jewish community denounced the ad for reviving a “classic stereotype of Nazi
propaganda” that led to the “genocide of six million Jews” during the Holocaust.

On October 25-26, representatives from the Episcopal Conference of Chile, the

Church of Jesus Christ, publishing company Santillana, and the Episcopate’s
National Commission of Ecumenism and Interreligious Dialogue participated in
the 10th National Congress of Catholic Education. Participants focused on
addressing the challenges of interreligious education and sharing information on
interreligious projects at all levels of education. On October 3, Pontifical Catholic
University Rector Ignacio Sanchez and university officials held a meeting with the
Jewish-Muslim Fellowship of Argentina, led by Imam Marwan Gill of the
Ahmadiyya Muslim Community of Argentina and Rabbi Miguel Steuermann,
director of Radio Jai. In a letter published in the national daily newspaper La
Tercera, Sanchez advocated interreligious dialogue to “respect and value the faith
and beliefs of all the members of our country.”
At an interfaith Te Deum on September 18, Cardinal Celestino Aós, Archbishop of
Santiago, said that “religious freedom is a right of every human being.” The
Cardinal also emphasized that “[w]e cannot turn the other who does not think like
us into an enemy,” referring to the September 4 plebiscite in which 62 percent of
eligible voters rejected a draft constitution.

During the year, religious groups and umbrella organizations, such as ADIR, which
includes Catholics, Orthodox Church representatives, Adventists, Anglicans,
Baptists, Evangelicals, Lutherans, members of the Church of Jesus Christ, Jews,
Muslims, Baha’is, Buddhists, Hindus, Sikhs, Brahma Kumaris, and individuals who
follow Indigenous spiritual traditions, held several events, including an interfaith
“Call to Concord” event with ONAR on September 2.

On May 27, a newly established Interreligious and Intercultural Advisory Council

for the North Metropolitan Health Service met at the Catholic Church’s
archdiocese of Santiago to plan future activities, including a discussion on
managing grief resulting from the COVID-19 pandemic, an intercultural discussion
with representatives from Indigenous and migrant communities, and a training
course on bereavement. A virtual meeting included representatives from the
Jewish and Muslim communities, Catholic and Protestant Churches, Indigenous
groups, and migrant communities.

On March 30, the Catholic University’s Center for Religious Studies, Constitutional
Forum, and Law and Religion Center hosted a webinar titled “Democracy,
Religious Freedom, and Society in the Chile of the Future: International
Reflections.” The webinar reflected on the relevance and applicability of religious
freedom in democratic societies, particularly in relation to the country’s debate
over a new constitution. The discussion panel included academics from the
University of Manchester, Nottingham Trent University, Complutense University
of Madrid, and a senator from Uruguay.

Religions for Peace, a multireligious, leadership-based organization with

international women and youth networks as well as more than 90 interreligious
councils around the world, continued its interfaith work in the country. On June
6, Elias Szczytnicki, Secretary General of Religions for Peace, joined ONAR Director
Cortes, along with religious leaders, representatives of faith-based organizations,
and academic experts, for the FIDELA Conference, held within the framework of
the Summit of the Americas.

On March 12, Jewish and Muslim leaders and representatives from Christian
denominations, including Evangelicals, Lutherans, Adventists, and Catholics,
participated in a “prayer for Chile” at the Metropolitan Cathedral presided over
by Cardinal Aós.

On February 9, the Baha’i community hosted a panel discussion entitled, “From

Social Injustice and Segregation to a New Model of Human-centered Cities,” at
the Baha’i House of Worship in Santiago. According to Luis Sandoval of the Baha’i
Office of External Affairs, the Baha’i House of Worship has played a role in
creating inclusive discussion spaces and bringing together government officials
with leaders of faith communities and thousands of the country’s citizens to
discuss the topic of social cohesion.

Section IV. U.S. Government Policy and Engagement

On July 19-21, the Special Envoy to Monitor and Combat Antisemitism visited the
country, where she met with officials at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and ONAR,
leaders from the Jewish Community of Chile, and academic experts. The Special
Envoy likened antisemitism to a “canary in the coal mine,” a flashing yellow light
of hazards ahead. The Special Envoy discussed with representatives of the Jewish
community concerns regarding antisemitism in the country and their plans to
strengthen ties with human rights organizations. She underscored how
antisemitism erodes democratic institutions and values.

The Ambassador, Chargé, and other embassy representatives met with

government officials, including from ONAR, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, the
Interior Ministry, and members of congress, to discuss the status of religious
minorities in the country, interfaith dialogue efforts, reports of antisemitism, and
institutional cooperation between government and religious organizations.

The Ambassador, Chargé, and other embassy representatives met with civil
society and religious leaders to discuss religious diversity and tolerance and
incidents of concern, including perceived threats to the Jewish community.

On September 18, the Ambassador attended an interfaith Te Deum event, during

which she discussed the U.S. government’s prioritization of religious freedom and
respect for religious diversity.

The embassy continued to use social media to underscore the importance of

interfaith understanding and tolerance, including posting articles on religious
freedom, interfaith celebrations in the United States, and the International
Religious Freedom Day commemoration. During the year, the embassy hosted
two speaker events on religious freedom, including presentations by the founder
of the U.S.-based Terezín Music Foundation and the Special Envoy to Monitor and
Combat Antisemitism.