Strongman v. Church

From, every Roman Catholic pulpit in Argentina this week, priests read a pastoral letter denouncing the Argentine government's campaign of harassment against the Catholic Church. Said the 4,000-word message, signed by 23 of Argentina's Catholic prelates: "To those who have lost their tenure, their positions, their reputations or their resources, and to those who endured imprisonment without being convicted of any crime, goes our voice of comfort and encouragement." For eight years after he became President of 93%-Catholic Argentina in 1946, Strongman Juan Peron got along well enough with the clergy. The Archbishop of Buenos Aires, Santiago Luis Cardinal Copello, publicly prayed for "most copious blessings from Heaven" on the President. But last year the opposition-hating strongman began worrying about clerical influence in organizations of workers, professionals and students, and even more about what looked like the beginnings of a Catholic political party in the devout inland province of Cordoba. Last October the Peron government launched an on-and-off feud with the church. Since then the government has cut its subsidies to church schools to a trickle, dismissed dozens of priests from posts as teachers and chaplains, fired scores of government officials who belonged to laymen's associations. The police have banned numerous Catholic gatherings, arrested at least 13 priests on vague charges of "disrespect." Congress has slapped the church in the face by legalizing divorce and prostitution and banning traditional outdoor religious processions. At times it appeared that Peron wanted to call a truce, but after each lull the harassment began anew.

Last week Peron trimmed five religious feast days--Epiphany, Corpus Christi, Assumption, All Saints, Immaculate Conception--from the list of national holidays.*The following day Cardinal Copello visited Peron, and rumors flew about that the two leaders had arranged a peace. But Peron & Co. soon punctured that wishful thought. The Ministry of Education abruptly accused Catholic schools of defrauding the government of $300,000 by padding payrolls. Sneered the Peronista newspaper Democracia: "These are the would-be monopolists of morality . . .

They are unmasked now."

*Still on the list: the Day of Loyalty to Peron (Oct. 17) and the anniversary of Eva Peron's death (July 26).

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