In Chile the State sanctions, helps to support and maintain the Catholic church, and the church participates in politics and the affairs of state. Reaching out through its various ramifications the church extends its influence to the farthest limits of the country, both socially and politically. The union of Church and State is strong, and the day seems far distant when they will be divorced. Able and courageous men, individually and in party groups, have tried to loosen the hold Catholicism has on Chile, and have in some instances weakened its influence upon the body politic, but it is still powerful. President Balmaceda endeavored to separate Church and State, not by destroying the church, but by directing each in its legitimate channel. The result was defeat, revolution, disaster and death. One of the Popes said concerning the Catholic church: “Its catholicity is its credentials to Divine origin and authority.” It is not the intention of the writer to challenge this statement, but the broad, liberal Catholic idea would seem to suggest that the influence of the church should be directed along lines laid down in the Divine Law, and not exerted in an effort to control political policies. It is not the purpose to discuss here the individual merits of the clergy, but to consider it as a body politic, its influence for weal or woe with the people and upon the nation. It is a significant fact that every law on the statute books tending to secure greater liberty of action, freedom of thought and speech, has been opposed by the political element of the church. Such progressive measures as the civil register law, providing for a public record of births, deaths and marriages, and requiring civil marriage ceremonies; the establishment and maintenance of public and private schools, and the designation of non-Catholic cemeteries, where Protestants might receive burial, have received the opposition of the clergy. To try to lift the veil and look into the private lives of the clergy would seem little less than sacrilege. It would reveal acts pure and noble, lives worthy of example and emulation, and it would also show startling and shocking scenes enacted in the name of religion. There are those who are sacrificing their lives in the cause of the Master, others living vicious and licentious lives under the cloak of Christianity. The illiteracy and superstition of the people give to the unworthy and insincere opportunities to practice deception and imposition. Upon the other hand, these same conditions afford an ample field and unlimited opportunities for good, with those who are conscientious and possess the true Christian spirit.