"If I Were Dictator"

The Argentine government's running war of harassment against the Roman Catholic Church goes on, fueled by President Juan Peron's deep distaste for anything faintly resembling opposition. Last week the Interior Ministry banned a scheduled outdoor Mass and procession marking the end of the Marian Year. While a substitute indoor Mass was being celebrated at Buenos Aires' buff-colored cathedral, Peron and his top officials ostentatiously gathered at the airport to welcome Argentine Boxer Pascual Perez home from Japan, where he had won the flyweight (112-lb.) championship of the world. That same day, the Peron General Confederation of Labor (C.G.T.) ordered the "lay enthronement" of the late Eva Peron; pictures of Evita are to be posted at all union headquarters so that "workers may venerate [her] memory."

The turnout at the cathedral--an amazing overflow crowd of more than 50,000 --obviously distressed Peron & Co. Rumbled Peron in a speech to the C.G.T. later in the week; "[Those who] are permanently opposed to our efforts and achievements are sometimes clothed as oligarchs, sometimes as priests, but they are always the same. The time has come to take the pruning shears and cut them off ... If I were dictator I would do the job myself. [Instead] when the people have had enough they will take the necessary measures, and in that event, I will be at the head of the people."

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