Under Alfredo Stroessner’s authoritarian rule in Paraguay, the Catholic Church underwent a dramatic shift from collaborator to critic. Influenced by the Second Vatican Council and the Medellín Conference, bishops began reframing the regime’s violent repression of indigenous peoples as a human rights crisis.

In the immediate aftermath of the January 6, 2021 insurrection, religious leaders across the United States moved swiftly to reframe the events as not just political unrest, but a moral and democratic crisis. Leaders from numerous faith traditions condemned the violent attack on the Capitol, denouncing it as a betrayal of American democracy and a perversion of religious values.