A Catholic organisation, it was created by Pope Paul VI at the request of cardinal Raúl Silva Henríquez to replace the Committee of Cooperation for Peace in Chile.
On 11 September 1973 a military junta toppled Chilean President Salvador Allende in a coup d'état and installed General Augusto Pinochet as head of the new regime.
[1][2] This was a dictatorial, authoritarian regime which trampled on human rights with the use of torture, disappearances, illegal and secret arrest, and extrajudicial killings.
The first organized resistance to emerge was in 1973 with the establishment of the Committee of Cooperation for Peace in Chile, or Comité Pro Paz.
An ecumenical organization with the support of many religious communities in Chile,[4] the Committee for Peace was active from 1973 to late 1975, until the Pinochet regime demanded its dissolution.
At the request of Cardinal Raul Silva Enriquez, the vicariate's first director, it was set up by Pope Paul VI in 1976 to stop the abduction and ill treatment of Chilean citizens by the government.
From there, the Vicariate of Solidarity was formed as an integral part of the Church that would assume legal defense and human rights issues.
It continued the work begun by the peace commission and aimed to be a voice against Augusto Pinochet's arbitrary military dictatorship.
It received funds from international organizations and collated valuable information during the years of the military regime.
The organization strove to end the military dictatorship of General Augusto Pinochet through a number of ways.
Between 1975 and 1979, it is documented to have provided a combination of legal, nutritional and occupational services to about 700,000 Chileans with the aid of international funding.
The Vicariate's records of over 19,000 cases of human rights abuse were used in the years after Chile's return to democracy by the Chilean truth commission.
According to its records, "the fundamental inspiration for the Vicariate is the Word of the Lord in its totality, but especially as found in the parable of the Good Samaritan as written in St Luke 10: 25-37."
The report they came up with in the end emphasized: - Its promotion and defense of human rights, understood integrally, but with special preference for the poor.
- The special way it combines hierarchy and laity, with an ecumenical and pluralistic spirit these being the signs of a missionary Church carrying out a "frontier" ministry.
Third, the principal criterion of gaining the assistance of the Vicariate is that the person who is requesting aid has been the victim of a human rights violation.
Fourth, the Vicariate does not provide legal defense aid for common crimes or "behavior affecting the human rights of innocent third parties".
Some characteristic features of the Vicariate are legal action that is free, the right to an intransigent defense, prompt and efficient representation, solidary representation, professional and scientific rigor, educational perspective, historical legacy, activities derived from the absence of democracy, and security of legal aid.
The help provided generally includes projects assisting the poor and marginalized who have been victims of human rights violations in the various pastoral zones that comprise the Archdiocese.
It works with the Church of Santiago to organize and coordinate support for people who have been affected by problems such as unemployment, hunger, health housing, education, and others.
The magazine is also a testimony to all of the services the Vicariate offers, and is used as a form of social communication through the church to inform people freely, objectively, opportunely and truthfully, in a manner that was not being provided by other media sources during the coup.
The magazine attempts to "oppose ideological manipulation, transculturation, and the propaganda of materialism"[9] to educate readers on what it considers the true values of justice, liberty, peace, truth and solidarity views to be.
The Documentation Center contains national and foreign material concerning the Church and human rights.