The central issue in the ongoing religious war between the Church and State in Latin America is human rights. One aspect of this struggle is the persecution of bishops. priests, and laymen who have challenged a right-wing totalitarian ideology that has engulfed the continent. The other integral part of the story is the verified role of the U.S. Defense Department, the CIA, and corporate industry in the rise of this totalitarianism. Thus, on many occasions Catholic bishops and priests, including American citizens, have been tortured or murdered by organizations funded and trained by the United States Government, sometimes with the direct connivance of United States agencies. Because of this involvement, important sectors of the traditionally conservative Latin American Catholic Church now oppose U. S. capitalism. Much of the narrative of the book is composed of stories of the Church's martyrs, people who were murdered because they supported a farmers' cooperative or the construction of a sewer system in a slum or because they repeated God’s commandment, "You shall not kill. " These courageous people have given new testimony to the essential character of the Gospel, which is the story of poor people, and of the Gospel message of human rights.