In 1907, the city of Heredia became the epicenter of the most important religious conflict experienced by Costa Rica in the 20th century. A complaint that the theory of evolution was taught in the Lyceum of that city, unleashed an increasingly intense confrontation between the Catholic congregation and the circle of young radical intellectuals articulating around the writer and educator Roberto Brenes Mesén. In the course of this process, Costa Rican society, to the alarm of the government of Cleto González Viquez, was the scene of popular mobilizations in defense of the faith, excommunications and burning of impious texts, while Catholic morality was systematically questioned based on sexual abuse attributed to priests. For a moment, it seemed that the country had gone back in time, and that the ghosts of 1884 were present.