Abstract
This article brings out the impact of social, economic and political processes on the Church's action in Costa Rica between 1940 and 1982. We can detect various types of relations which have developed, over the years, between the State and the Church. A distinction is put forward between three periods which are important for an understanding of the change. Ideological inter dependence and the ecclesiastical machinery's support for social democrat reformism seem to characterize the period under consi deration.