The Roman Catholic Church serves as the main buttress of the Chilean government and the primary instrument of social control.

Compared with its counterparts in Peru and Mexico, the church in Chile is not very rich or powerful.

On the frontier, missionaries are more important than the Catholic hierarchy.

Although usually it supports the status quo, the church produces the most important defenders of the indigenous population against Spanish atrocities.

The most famous advocate of human rights for the native Americans is a Jesuit, Luis de Valdivia (no relation to Pedro de Valdivia), who struggles, mostly in vain, to improve their lot in the period 1593-1619.