Abstract
The article examines the role of the Catholic Church in the formation of the Colombia Nation State in three distinct periods during the 19th-century. In the first period (1810-1853) the members of the Church have an active participation in the processes of independence (1810 and 1824). Given the decisive role of the Church in the formation of new mentalities since the colonial times and in the also in the formation of parties, between 1824 and 1853 the nascent State subjugated the Church to the Republican patronage. A second period, with difficult processes of secularization during the Liberal governments, departed from the separation of the Church and State in 1853 and culminated in 1885. Finally, a third period shows the recovery of the dominant role of the Catholic Church in the Colombian society under the conservative regeneration, between 1886 and 1902. The Colombia process ran against the processes of secularization that happened in the other Latin America countries
Keywords:
Catholic Church; State; Nation; Colombia; Latin America; 19th century