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rfmcdonaldFrom THe Telegraph:
Well over nine-tenths of Argentina's population is affiliated with the Roman Catholic Church, imported by the Spanish who conquered the region in the 16th century and reinforced by waves of immigration from Catholic European countries like Italy, Spain, France, Ireland, and Poland in the 19th and 20th centuries. In the past, Argentina's Catholic Church has played a pivotal role in the past. This may be changing, and not only because of sexual abuse scandals: GUBU public statements do at least as good a job as child rape.
My review of Sacred Versus Secular concluded by suggesting that sociologists of religion should look at the Argentine situation closely in order to decipher whether or not the world's future will be more secular than at present. Right now, I'd be willing to bet money that it will be.
Bishop Antonio Baseotto, who is bishop to Argentina's armed forces, was fired for saying that Ginés González García, the Argentine health minister, should be "thrown into the sea with a millstone around his neck" for seeking to decriminalise abortion.
The bishop was alluding to Jesus's words in the Gospels: "And whosoever shall offend one of [these] little ones that believe in me, it is better for him that a millstone were hanged about his neck, and he were cast into the sea."
For most Argentines, however, his comments brought back unwelcome memories of "death flights" by the military government between 1976 and 1983, when political opponents and misfits were drugged, handcuffed and thrown into the River Plate.
Rafael Bielsa, the minister of foreign affairs and worship, said that the reference was "unacceptable", but Joaquín Navarro Valls, the Pope's spokesman, countered that the bishop's sacking was a "violation of religious freedom".
Well over nine-tenths of Argentina's population is affiliated with the Roman Catholic Church, imported by the Spanish who conquered the region in the 16th century and reinforced by waves of immigration from Catholic European countries like Italy, Spain, France, Ireland, and Poland in the 19th and 20th centuries. In the past, Argentina's Catholic Church has played a pivotal role in the past. This may be changing, and not only because of sexual abuse scandals: GUBU public statements do at least as good a job as child rape.
In 1955, Pope Pius XII excommunicated Peron and threatened his followers with similar punishment. Argentina's Catholics sided with the Church, prompting Peron to resign and go into exile.
In this tussle, however, public opinion of Bishop Baseotto has been dented by reports that he made anti-Jewish comments in the 1980s. The Argentine Church has not commented on the allegations, which claim that the bishop said that Jews were prepared to make money from selling drugs and pornography. Buenos Aires is home to one of the largest diaspora communities of Jewish people outside the United States.
Catholics in Argentina have been left to wait for the next move from the Vatican.
My review of Sacred Versus Secular concluded by suggesting that sociologists of religion should look at the Argentine situation closely in order to decipher whether or not the world's future will be more secular than at present. Right now, I'd be willing to bet money that it will be.
