The Argentine Catholic Church, or Catholic Church in Argentina, is part of the worldwide Catholic Church, under the spiritual leadership of the Pope, the Curia in Rome, and the Argentine Episcopal Conference.
According to the CIA World Factbook (July 2014), 92% of the country are nominally Catholic, but less than 20% practice their faith regularly (i.e., attend weekly Mass). see also Religions Argentina Later studies in 2019 suggest that between 62.9% and 63.3% of Argentinians are Catholic. No study has yet determined whether Catholics with higher levels of traditional religious observance are more likely than those with lower levels to participate in any cultural Catholic activities such as participating in online conversations about Catholicism's customs, beliefs, etc., sharing Catholic holidays with family, or engaging in political and social activism as an expression of Catholicism. In 2020, such a study was made of American Jews, comparing and contrasting nominally Jewish adherents with those who practice their faith weekly."Jewish Americans in 2020," Pew Research Center, Religion and Public Life, 5/16/2021.Also see Michelle Dillon's Catholic Identity: Balancing Reason, Faith, and Power (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1999); Philip Hammond's article in "Religion and the Persistence of Identity" in the Journal for the Scientific Study of Religion, 27 (1988), 1–11, and Peter Burke, "Introductions," in Burke et al., eds., Advances in Identity Theory and Research (New York, 2003) 1–10. And finally, for a more nuanced treatment of Catholic identity within the defined geographical and temporal context of early 20th century Boston (US), see Paul Kane's Separatism and Substructure: Boston Catholicism, 1900–1920 (Chapel Hill, 1994). These sources point out that religious institutions, observance data, and structures have never been the sole source of the religious narratives of any faith (not just Jewish) that serve to structure the identities of individual adherents.
Today, the church in Argentina is divided into administrative territorial units called dioceses and archdioceses. Buenos Aires, for example, is a metropolitan archdiocese owing to its size and historical significance as the capital of the nation.
An archbishop of Buenos Aires, Cardinal Jorge Bergoglio (later Pope Francis), SJ, was elected as Pope on 13 March 2013 in the 2013 papal conclave. Buenos Aires Metropolitan Cathedral, the seat of the archbishop, also houses the remains of General José de San Martín in a mausoleum.Atlas Obscura website
There are eight Catholic universities in Argentina: Pontifical Catholic University of Argentina (Buenos Aires), the Universidad Católica de Córdoba, the Universidad Católica de La Plata, the Universidad Católica de Salta, the Universidad Católica de Santa Fe, the Universidad Católica de Cuyo, the Universidad Católica de las Misiones, and the Catholic University of Santiago del Estero.
History
Colonial Era and Independence
During the Spanish colonial period, the Catholic Church became the main provider of Christian presence and religious social services in the different Spanish viceroyalties in South America, including the territory that would later become the current Argentine Republic.
After the May Revolution in 1810 first, and then with the independence of Spain in 1816, there were disagreements within the national ruling elite about the degree of influence of the church in the country. Without wanting to offend Spain, the papacy condemned the revolutions sweeping South America in time and creating a contentious relationship with the budding Argentina Nation that will finally be resolved in 1966 with the concordat between the Argentine Republic and the Holy See.
Ecclesiastical reform of Rivadavia
Between 1820 and 1824, Martín Rodríguez governed, whose minister Bernardino Rivadavia promoted an ecclesiastical reform by modernizing a sector of society that had not changed since the time before the May Revolution. This reform included the suppression of tithes, the transfer to the State of some of the assets of the religious orders, such as those of the Sanctuary of Luján, of the Brotherhood of Charity, of the Hospital of Santa Catalina and others. 5 In opposition to the reform on March 19, 1823, the "Revolution of the Apostolics" broke out led by Gregorio García de Tagle in which illustrious citizens such as Domingo Achega, Mariano Benito Rolón, Ambrosio de Lezica (father) participated among others but failed after several hours of struggle.
The arbitrary and unilateral spoils of the Rivadavian administration together with the role of the Catholic Church in the genesis of Argentine nationality are the cause of the historical reparation that underlies the current support of Catholic worship in Argentina, regulated by Law 21.540 on the "Assignment to certain dignitaries belonging to the Roman Apostolic Catholic Cult." 6
Relationship from the National Organization
In any case, it was established in the first Argentine Constitution, (unitary) promulgated in 1819 – in its article 1 -, in that of 1826 (also unitary) – in its article 3 – and then in the federal Constitution of 1853, in its article 2, – still in force with modifications -, which reserves a special place for the Catholic Church, the majority religion among the population.
During the wars for independence, the State confiscated many temple assets to support the armies. For this reason, after the fall of the tyranny of Juan Manuel de Rosas, in the battle of Caseros, when the Constitution of 1853 was drafted, this debt is recognized in the aforementioned article 2.
Church–state relations in the nineteenth century were characterized by a series of conflicts between the Argentine government and the church over the issues of compulsory secular education, civil marriage and the governmental appointment of religious authorities. Argentina and the Holy See broke diplomatic relations in the 1880s on these issues and it took almost 20 years to restore them.
First half of the 20th century
At the beginning of the twentieth century, Buenos Aires was the second largest Catholic city in the world after Paris. The XXXII International Eucharistic Congress of 1934 was held in Buenos Aires, Argentina between October 9 and 14, 1934 with the presence of Eugenio Pacelli, future Pope Pius XII. It was the first to be held in Latin America and the third in the Americas after those held in Montreal and Chicago.
On the same day that the martyr Hector Valdivielso Sáez – the first Argentine saint – gave his life on October 9, the International Eucharistic Congress of 1934 began that marked a revival of Argentine Catholicism, a milestone from which a new life of the Church in Argentina, the dioceses increased, vocations grew, new parishes were built, and the laity became aware of their importance in the Church. Because of the magnitude of the crowds that attended public events, never before seen, it was the most important mass event in the country to date and, for some historians, the largest mobilization that has occurred in Argentina to date. 7
Relations improved in the early twentieth century, with several conservative administrations working with the Holy See to lay the foundations for a mutually acceptable relationship, which involved, among other things, state permissiveness towards religious education in public schools.
Mid-20th Century
The government of the Infamous Decade, the subsequent dictatorship and the first eight years of the government of Juan Perón overthrew the continuity of the fluid relationship between the State and the Catholic Church. In 1954, President Perón broke off relations with the Catholic Church and began a confrontation with it. The Perón regime abolished non-working days for Catholic Holidays, legalized Divorce and Prostitution, prohibited religious displays in public places, and Creches were banned in Buenos Aires. On June 11, 1955, approximately 200 thousand people attended a Corpus Christi procession in Buenos Aires, despite it being illegal. The Peronist regime reacted by accusing the attendees of vandalism and burning the Flag of Argentina. The next day, Peronists attempted to set fire to Buenos Aires Metropolitan Cathedral, but were prevented by members of Catholic Action and the UNES. During a Peronist rally in the Plaza de Mayo on June 16, the Plaza was bombed as a part of a failed coup attempt by Anti-Peronists, which killed more than 300 civilians. In response, Peronists destroyed several churches and hundreds of Anti-Peronists and Priests were arrested.
The 1960s served as a decade of significant change for the Catholic Church in Argentina. The severed relationship caused by the Peron dictatorship coincided with major political shifts in Latin America. Following the Second Vatican Council's conclusion in 1965, the Catholic Church experienced a renewal of morals, with a greater focus on interaction in the social sphere. Increased interaction between the church and the poor living in slums/rural areas of Latin America created stronger connections between classes and political movements. Following the overthrow of Peron in 1955, many sectors of Argentinian society struggled to create and construct new projects. A widespread ban on the Peronist Party removed a majority of the population out of the political system. The ban created a power struggle amongst labor unionist groups, as well as economic and political groups. The struggle for power between groups was halted by a lack of long term legitimacy, resulting in political groups unable to enforce their ideas on others. Support for the Church and its civil power increased as a result.
In the military government of the post-Peron era, young people were led towards political involvement through working with the church. The radicalization of the Catholic Church as a result of the Second Vatican Council paved the way for increasing revolutionary thought, with the pressure of injustice and an incapable infrastructure being presented to the young people of society. In direct response to the council, the Movement of Priests for the Third World was created. With a focus on supporting work force conflicts, the priests outwardly supported socialist revolutionary beliefs from 1967 to 1976. Within this era of revolutionary growth, there became different ways of interpreting the future of the Catholic Church in response to the concern's of state terrorism. Scholar Gustavo Morello has argued that the church fractured into 3 categories, each based on the relationship between the Catholic Church and the state. National Catholics held the belief that the church and the state were to be closely aligned, and that "only a Catholic State could guarantee a Catholic society". Official Catholics understood the importance of the relationship between the state and the Church, however keeping most powers separate. Popular Catholics, which used their links of the past with the state in order to protect human lives in the present. Finally, a fourth form of Catholicism, one in which threats towards human lives were to be seen as a call for Catholics to stand in harm's way.
The relations of the Catholic Church and the Argentine Government improved after the overthrow of Peron. In 1966, a Concordat between Argentina and the Holy See was signed that governs to today the relations between the two, and explicitly states that it is the Pope who exclusively controls the appointment of Bishops. The radicalization of both the Catholic Church and of Argentina's politics resulted in violence by religiously motivated leftist groups. The growing violence and revolutionary thought in the public sphere was linked to the fracturing occurring within the church. Ideas of implementing concepts discussed at the Second Vatican Council faced backlash from those committed to the conservative, national-Catholicism of the pre-Peron Argentina.
Rise of Leftist Violence