The year 1925 marked a turning point for the Church and the State in Bolivia. The arrival of Nuncio Gaetano Cicognani coincided with the First Centenary of the Republic. His agenda focused on consolidating full relations, reorganizing the territorial map of the Bolivian Church, and strengthening national identity through its patroness.
The coronation of the Virgin of Copacabana as Patroness of Bolivia (on August 1) served to seal a symbolic peace. After decades of tensions, the presence of President Saavedra alongside Nuncio Cicognani kneeling before the Virgin staged national reconciliation. Monsignor Cicognani participated in official events as the dean of the diplomatic corps, bypassing the conventional criterion of seniority in office. This privilege is maintained to this day.
In 1932, Monsignor Luigi Centoz arrived in Bolivia, where he lived through the Chaco War (1932–1935). His counterpart in Asunción was Monsignor Filippo Cortesi. Both clergymen are remembered for their outstanding humanitarian work: Cortesi for tirelessly advocating for the exchange of prisoners and the wounded, and Centoz for defending the indigenous missions in the Chaco, which were trapped in the middle of the conflict and targets of military abuses by both sides. In this context, notable denunciations were made to the nuncio by the German Karl Walter Vervoort, an Oblate of Mary Immaculate, who became the first bishop of the Vicariate of Pilcomayo when that territory came under Paraguayan sovereignty.
Regarding the Vatican’s alleged collaboration in the ratlines of Nazi officials to South America (including Bolivia) in the post-war period, it must be noted that the nuncio at the time, Giuseppe Burzio (1946–1950), would hardly have lent himself to such a task, given his well-known anti-Nazi background during his mission in Slovakia.
From the era of the National Revolution (1952–1964), the signing of a bilateral agreement that remains in force stands out: the 1957 Missions Agreement, signed during the government of Hernán Siles Suazo. Subsequently, the 1961 Constitution and Decree-Law 6980 of November 1964 put an end to the Patronage regime.
Following the Second Vatican Council, the Church assumed a strong social and political commitment with renewed determination. In Bolivia, this current was expressed in the re-evangelization of the peasantry, participation in social movements, the expansion of the media and higher education, as well as the presence of various currents inspired by liberation theology.
Likewise, how can we forget the firm action of Nuncio Alfio Rapisarda to protect the life of President Lidia Gueiler, who was deposed by the brutal 1980 coup?
One hundred years after the tensions with the Liberal Party, relations between the Church and the State faced another moment of crisis during the government of the Movement for Socialism (MAS), with the approval of a new Political Constitution of the State (2009) and that government’s hostility toward the Church’s works. However, the constitutional formula found—which can be summarized as “distinct institutions, but not separated”—ultimately proved balanced and mutually satisfactory.
The visits to Bolivia by two pontiffs (John Paul II in 1988 and Francis in 2015) strengthened bilateral relations, although without leading to the signing of a Framework Agreement. Nevertheless, the sectoral agreements signed previously remain in force.
It is to be hoped that the celebration of the sesquicentennial of diplomatic relations will be the propitious occasion to successfully complete this pending task.