Argentina: Trouble from the Pulpits

Few Latin American governments can long survive without the support of the Catholic Church, and nowhere is this fact more important than in Argentina. There, the cardinal ranks third in official protocol and regularly moves in presidential circles. To prove his own strong Catholic bent, Strongman Juan Carlos Onganía constantly refers to religion in his speeches and has had large contingents of priests on hand on ceremonial occasions. Yet last week many churchmen were showing signs of washing their hands of his revolution and his government.

In a letter read from the pulpits of his diocese of Nueve de Julio, Bishop Antonio Quarracino stressed that there were no ties whatsoever between the church and the new regime. “The church,” he said, “does not seek privileges or political tasks. It demands only liberty in exercising its mission.” A few days later, Bishop Jerónimo Podesta, 46, leader of Buenos Aires’ diocese of Avellaneda (pop. 1,200,000), went on record in the Buenos Aires magazine Primera Plana. “The church,” he noted, “wants to serve the modern world, and this does not mean to serve such and such a government. Identification with any political regime would be harmful to the church.” Meantime, several priests have circulated a petition asking Antonio Cardinal Caggiano to be less chummy with Onganía. Whatever the reason, last week Cardinal Caggiano was suddenly far less visible at government functions.

The bishops claim that they were only clarifying a longstanding relationship for members who mistakenly felt the church was linked to the revolution.

Others felt that things had moved beyond that and reflected a growing impatience with the snail’s pace of Onganía’s government, which has yet to make a start on the economic and political problems that triggered the revolution.