Separation of Church and State Implemented in Argentina

La Croix ^ | 12/4/18 | Eric Domergue

[marshmallow]

Argentine bishops say they will cease accepting govt grants in line with a policy established by Pope Francis as archbishop of Buenos Aires

Article 2 of Argentina’s national Constitution provides that “the federal government will support Apostolic Roman Catholic worship.”

Concretely, this currently amounts to 130 million pesos ($US3 million) of financial support per year, representing 7 percent of the budget of the Argentine Church.

The sum covers bishops' salaries, aid for border parishes and scholarships for seminarians.

Discussions on the issue between the bishops and the government of President Mauricio Macri began in August 2018 when it was agreed that the separation would be implemented progressively.

The 94 bishops present at the 116th General Assembly of the Argentine Episcopal Conference (CEA) from Nov. 5-9 backed this position.

“A commission of the episcopate will work to develop a solidarity fund and will continue on the dialogue path with the national government, seeking agreement on various alternatives that will facilitate the replacement of these funds,” CEA spokesperson, Father Maximo Jurcinovic, said.

“We are thinking of reinforcing solidarity mechanisms among communities and the faithful,” he said.

“This is an important and positive step on which consensus has been achieved among the bishops,” said Argentine Secretary for Worship, Alfredo Abriani.

“What we are seeking is a change of paradigm, moving from the idea that the government supports the Church to a situation where the Church establishes mechanisms or conditions that will enable it to sustain its own worship,” he said.

However, local media suspect that the CEA decision arose from a cooling of relations with the government.

[The Westerner]

Fascinating!

[DIRTYSECRET]

Can they say grace in the school cafeteria?

[Svartalfiar]

Discussions on the issue between the bishops and the government of President Mauricio Macri began in August 2018 when it was agreed that the separation would be implemented progressively.

So did Argentina pass a Constitutional Amendment removing section 2? Or is this a legislative thing that they're just doing because lefties are in charge? Or, is this a non-legislative thing, and they're just doing it because no one's stopping them?