The evidence is very clear, just look at all the former Spanish colonies and analysis its problem. The Catholic church and the oligarchs are two side of the same coin, they were used by the Spaniard to perpetuate their rule as Spain is too far away. Just imagine a force of only 2,000 soldiers and 500 monks were able to conquer a country the size of the Philippine, an archipelago (except for Mindanao) in 10 years.
The end of Galleon trade mark the start of revolution fever as the Spanish crown had to tax heavily the colonies oligarch to make up the revenue lost, they're the one with the help of the Catholic clergy who started the resistance. Both of them become so powerful for Imperial Spain to control.
If I may if you have the time please read Jose Rizal "Noli Me Tangere" and see why he wrote the book, his criticism of the church and how the oligarch operates, mind you he is not a revolutionary figure just want to reform the system, the reason the American chosen him as our National Hero instead of Andres Bonifacio (too extreme and a true revolutionary and a resistance fighter).
All former Spanish colonies are as problematic as former English, Dutch or French colonies. Perhaps the Spanish colonies are even the least worst in Latin America.
Just look at the chaos, poverty and violence in Jamaica, a former English colony in the Caribbean, or Haiti, a former French colony.
Not to mention the misery of India, Pakistan, Papua New Guinea and the whole of Africa, which also spent centuries under English rule.
The only former colonial countries that became rich and did well are the USA, Canada and Australia, and only because the British killed the local populations and sold the land to European colonizers. And yet they are also hypocritical oligarchies.
Blaming only the Catholic Church or the Spanish is just repeating Anglo Saxon supremacist propaganda.
But see that the Philippines was colonized by the US at the end of the 19th century and just became another liberal democracy and remains a corrupt country and vassal of American supremacy. Why blame the decadent and weak Catholic Church but not the liberal order that to this day imprisons the Philippines to be a vassal of the American empire?
The Catholic church has no real power today. But the liberals and US lackeys in the government are in power and must be held to account.
