The Vicariate of Solidarity, founded in 1976 and dependant on the Archdiocese of Santiago de Chile, is one of the few voices which has been raised in Chilean society against torture, the abuse of power and violence, making its rallying banner the defence of liberty and human rights.

The Vicariate was founded in 1976, aiming to create a "space of justice" in a Chile oppressed by a dictatorial and arbitrary regime, aiding the persecuted and attending to the families of those who disappeared while in detention. After fourteen years this work amounts to legal advise for more than 257,000 people, the presentation of more than 4,500 appeals for legal rights and the opening of more than 5,000 legal cases in defence of those accused or to denounce abuses.

The constant work of the Vicariate in favour of the oppressed has led to campaigns and persecution by the military dictatorship, which has tried to confuse the Chilean people and international opinion presenting this institution as a refuge for terrorists and an organisation of a political nature. Many of its members have suffered detention and imprisonment, death threats and even, as happened to one of the priests, Ignacio Gutiérrez, expulsion from the country.

Currently the leadership of the Vicariate of Solidarity is in the hands of Santiago Tapia, a priest that tries to encourage the reconciliation from the pages of the magazine Solidaridad. In his editorials he insists, time and again, on the urgency of and the need for a true reconciliation of the whole Chilean people. Solidaridad and the Vicariate try to promote a new social model where the values of liberty, justice and fraternity replace tyranny, violence and terror. Monseigneur Tapia believes that in this mission the Western countries can give important support, both economic - which is so necessary - and moral.