ARGENTINA

ARGENTINA. – Federal republic of South America.

SUMMARY:

I. Geography

II. History of Christianity

III. History of Church–State relations

IV. School system

I. GEOGRAPHY

With an extension of 33° in latitude, Argentina presents very different soil and climate conditions from zone to zone. In general, the following regions can be distinguished: to the north, the southern Chaco, partly steppe (pastureland), partly bushland (quebracho), with a semi-arid tropical climate, which merges to the east into increasingly humid strips (Misiones and the Argentine Mesopotamia between the Paraná and Uruguay rivers); the terraced highlands (mesetas) of Patagonia south of the Río Colorado, steppe-like and desolate, with equally semi-arid but cold or even subpolar climates (Tierra del Fuego); and – between these two regions – the Pampa, flat and grassy in the east, drier and interspersed with relief in the west (Western Pampa), with a more temperate climate, less scarce rainfall, especially in the east, and therefore better suited to agriculture. Finally, Argentina includes the eastern slopes of the Chilean Andes, which in the north comprise part of the desolate intermontane highlands (Puna) and are flanked, like stage wings, by longitudinal sierras that enclose more or less extensive strips of pampa.

A little over one quarter of the territory (27%) is covered by forests; the rest is dominated by steppe, only about 10% of which has been converted to cultivation. Among the crops, cereals (wheat, maize, rice, oats) prevail, along with linseed (eastern Pampa), vines (Mendoza), sugarcane and cotton (Tucumán). After agriculture, livestock raising constitutes the country’s main wealth (in millions of head: 34 cattle, 56 sheep and goats, 7.5 horses; 8 swine).

Linked to both activities are the most efficient industries, which, besides eliminating Argentina’s dependence on foreign imports for some manufactured goods (woollens, cotton goods, footwear), have fostered an increasingly significant export trade (flour, meats, dairy products). The exploitation of mineral resources (lead, tin, manganese, tungsten) is still in its early stages; promising, however, is the extraction of petroleum, mainly from the Chubut region (3 million tons).

The population, almost entirely white, has more than tripled in the last fifty years, during which immigrants have exceeded six million. Nearly half of these are Italians, a third Spaniards. Indigenous peoples now number only a few thousand (53), confined to peripheral zones. The inhabitants are concentrated for one quarter in the capital, Buenos Aires (3.5 million, including suburbs), and for one third in this city and six others (Rosario, Córdoba, La Plata, Tucumán, Santa Fe, Bahía Blanca, Río Cuarto; all with over 100,000 inhabitants). 99.6% of the population is Catholic; Protestants are mainly English and German immigrants; Jews (ca. 100,000) are almost all Russian. There are no religious conflicts in the country.

Communications rely on an extensive road network (250,000 km.) and 42,800 km. of railways that essentially radiate from the middle Atlantic area toward the Pampa, though they are rather sparse elsewhere and suffer from gauge differences. Two transcontinental lines link Argentina with Bolivia (Buenos Aires–Tucumán–La Paz) and Chile (Transandine: Buenos Aires–Mendoza–Valparaíso).

Argentina’s trade balance is largely positive. In imports, textiles, fuels, lubricants, iron goods and machinery predominate (by value); in exports, cereals, meats, linseed, hides and skins, etc. Great Britain and the United States are the main suppliers and buyers.

| Provinces | Area in sq. km. | Census population | Density | Capitals (Population in thousands) |
|-------------------|-----------------|-------------------|---------|------------------------------------|
| Buenos Aires | 306,830 | 4,408,373 | 1.4 | La Plata (260) |
| Federal District | 186 | 3,000,371 | 1.1 | Buenos Aires (3,000) |
| Santa Fe | 134,827 | 1,700,026 | 1.3 | Santa Fe (150) |
| Córdoba | 168,152 | 1,455,222 | 0.9 | Córdoba (285) |
| San Luis | 76,923 | 167,620 | 2.2 | San Luis (40) |
| Santiago del Estero | 138,439 | 538,383 | 4.1 | Santiago del Estero (70) |
| Entre Ríos | 78,330 | 776,280 | 1.0 | Paraná (75) |
| Corrientes | 88,901 | 570,967 | 6.0 | Corrientes (68) |
| Jujuy | 43,267 | 166,783 | 4.1 | Jujuy (20) |
| Salta | 126,577 | 290,063 | 2.2 | Salta (43) |
| Tucumán | 22,836 | 604,526 | 2.7 | Tucumán (165) |
| Catamarca | 78,162 | 145,116 | 2.2 | Catamarca (23) |
| La Rioja | 86,492 | 109,386 | 1.1 | La Rioja (15) |
| San Juan | 89,179 | 260,714 | 3.3 | San Juan (36) |
| Mendoza | 148,783 | 590,548 | 4.1 | Mendoza (110) |

| Governorships | | | | |
| Chaco | 98,238 | 443,922 | 5.2 | Resistencia (50) |
| Formosa | 75,480 | 112,050 | 2.2 | Formosa (19) |
| Misiones | 30,431 | 244,123 | 8.8 | Posadas (38) |
| La Pampa | 144,183 | 167,562 | 1.1 | Santa Rosa (14) |
| Neuquén | 96,464 | 85,601 | 1.1 | Neuquén (10) |
| Río Negro | 201,010 | 132,419 | 1.1 | Viedma (9) |
| Chubut | 225,723 | 53,986 | 0.2 | Rawson (3) |
| Santa Cruz | 243,336 | 24,651 | 0.1 | Río Gallegos (7) |
| Tierra del Fuego | 21,610 | 4,902 | 0.2 | Ushuaia (1) |
| Los Andes (suppressed) | 72,755 | — | — | — |

TOTAL 2,797,114 16,053,600 6

II. HISTORY OF CHRISTIANITY

In modern times, Argentina is characterized by emancipation and life as an autonomous nation. In the first period, three distinct epochs can be identified according to the government imposed by Spain: 1) the epoch of the conquistadors (adelantados) from 1536 to 1591, during which missionaries arrived and began the work of converting the indigenous peoples; 2) the epoch of the governors from 1590 to 1776, during which the fruits of the conquest were consolidated and Christian cultural work was undertaken by missionaries in indigenous centers and colonies; 3) the epoch of the viceroyalty (1776–1816), initiated by Charles III, during which trade intensified and industry grew, with the multiplication of urban centers.

Even in the republican period (1816–1943), two epochs can be distinguished: that of emancipation and autonomous reorganization (1816–1900) and the subsequent epoch of immigrant and commercial development (1900–1943), which led to the progressive elimination of partisan prejudices, removing disintegrating tendencies (federalism), while the people acquired a sense of Christian cultural unity.

**First Period (16th century – early 19th century).** — During the time of colonization under the conquistadors (1536–1591), the first missionaries arrived. The initial expeditions of Juan Díaz de Solís (8 Oct. 1515), Ferdinand Magellan (1519–21), and Sebastian Cabot (1526–30) were the prelude to conquest and evangelization. With the first *adelantado* appointed by Charles V, Pedro de Mendoza, the first contingent of priests and religious arrived in 1536, and on 2 Feb. the great South American metropolis of Puerto de Nuestra Señora del Buen Aire was founded. Franciscans, Jesuits, Dominicans, and Mercedarians, according to the directives of their respective orders, contributed effectively to the rapid evangelization. With the expedition of Alfonso Cabrera, five or six Franciscans arrived in 1538, three of whom became the first bishops of Argentina. New groups of missionaries arrived in 1554, 1572, 1589, and 1592. The true conquistador was the *adelantado* Martínez de Irala, appointed in 1555. Irala did not recognize the governor appointed by Spain, Álvar Núñez Cabeza de Vaca, and with his soldiers and energy, he won the esteem of the government in the Peninsula, which confirmed him in the governorship. During his rule, the cities of Tucumán, Córdoba, Santa Fe were founded, and in 1580 the city of Buenos Aires was refounded. Irala, in his explorations, reached the Andean cordilleras and introduced the first livestock. Meanwhile, the missionaries served to pacify the indigenous peoples.

Among the most notable were the Franciscans Father Diego de Rojas, St. Francis Solano, Father Luigi de Bolaños, who produced the first catechism in an indigenous language; the Dominican Father Carvajal; and the Jesuits, who in 1610 founded indigenous colonies known as *reducciones*, serving as architects, printers, military instructors, and grammarians.

During the epoch of the governors (1591–1776), the fruits of the early efforts were gathered, and in the cities, populated by Creoles and mestizos, major educational institutions were established: the Colegio Máximo of Montserrat in Córdoba, the Colegio Grande and the Colegio de Belén in Buenos Aires, as well as colleges in Corrientes, Santa Fe, La Rioja, Salta, Tucumán, Santiago del Estero, and Mendoza. In 1621, Gregory XV granted the Colegio de Córdoba the right to confer degrees in theology. In 1610, the first indigenous colonies (*reducciones*) were established, governed by principles of equality, freedom, and Christian brotherhood, predating the proclamation of human rights in the Virginia Statute (1776) and the French Revolution (1789). These colonies faced unjust opposition for economic reasons. By 1767, they numbered 88,884 souls. The Jesuits established the first printing press in 1700. In 1776, Charles III established the Viceroyalty of the Río de la Plata, with Buenos Aires as its capital. This viceroyalty included, in addition to Argentina, Uruguay, Paraguay, and Bolivia; in 1782, it was divided into eight intendancies.

Leaving aside ecclesiastical and civil jurisdictional conflicts and the expulsion of the Society of Jesus, Argentina owes its harmonious cultural and economic development to the generous and Christian action of the Spanish government, to the wise colonial legislation that recognized the dignity of the human person, and to the ethnic factor introduced from the Iberian Peninsula.

**Second Period (1816–1948).** — In the first epoch (1816–1900), emancipation was achieved, with active participation from the national clergy; of the 29 members of the Tucumán Congress (1816) who signed the Act of Independence, 16 were ecclesiastics. In the organization of the autonomous nation, a period of internal wars and political disturbances arose between the two parties: the Unitarians (aristocrats) and the Federalists (landowners). After the presidency of Rodríguez (1821–24), General Las Heras succeeded him. In 1825, a Constitutional Assembly approved the "Fundamental Law," which established that provinces should govern themselves with their own institutions, but soon the Congress abolished the provincial regime, and President Rivadavia initiated a unitary-leaning government that irritated the *caudillos*, reigniting civil war. The struggles between Unitarians and Federalists continued until the dictatorship of the Federalist Rosas (1829), who ruled with exclusionary policies against the Unitarians until 1852. In 1853, the Constitutional Assembly sanctioned the current constitution, but full national unification was not achieved until 1861, when Buenos Aires became the capital of the Republic. In 1862, Bartolomé Mitre was elected president, favoring Italian immigration and cultural intensification. Faustino Sarmiento (1868), Nicolás Avellaneda (1874), Julio Roca (1880), and Miguel Juárez Celman (1886) governed amid periods of peace and turmoil. In the late 19th and early 20th centuries, a powerful impulse was given to cultural dissemination, partly influenced by liberal and positivist trends. Many educational and economic reforms were implemented, the method of historiography was renewed, universities, schools, and academies were founded, libraries were opened, and journalism, along with cultural magazines, assumed a prominent role. After national consolidation (1853), the phenomenon of immigration was extraordinarily successful; from 1857 to 1925, 2,659,508 Italians entered Argentina, many of whom contributed to agricultural and commercial development, improving economic conditions through mining exploration, wheat exports, and livestock farming. Scientific development from 1854 onward attracted many foreign scholars, including many Italians. Today, the Church is well represented by the clergy and religious communities that promote education and charitable works. In Buenos Aires alone, there are more than 70 male and 110 female educational institutions under Catholic direction. Catholic journalism includes more than 50 periodicals.

There are 7 metropolitan sees (Buenos Aires, Córdoba, La Plata, Paraná, Salta, San Juan de Cuyo, Santa Fe) and 16 diocesan sees.