Argentina
Pius XII excommunicated Argentina's President Perón on June 15, 1955. A month later a nationalist Catholic group from the Argentine military took power in a coup and installed as president one of its leaders, General Pedro E. Aramburu who negotiated the first of these concordats.
For the role of the Military chaplains and the Church during the 1976–1983 "Dirty War" under military rule, see the excellent short report by the Americas Program, Center for International Policy, "Clergyman to Stand Trial for 'Dirty War' Crimes in Argentina", 12 August 2007.
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Presidential decree cancels concordat in Argentina |
In a single sentence the Argentine military bishop managed to both attack AIDS prevention by the present democratic government and even, by implication, laud the death squads of the former military junta. This revealing remark has made it politically possible to cancel a concordat – the “international treaty” by which the taxpayers provided the bishop’s salary. | |
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Military concordat (1957) and update (1992) |
This concordat helped to consolidate Church influence in the new military government of General Arambu. | |
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Concordat with General Onganía (1966) |
On 29 June 1966 General Onganía ditched democracy, on 29 July he had the police terrorise the University of Buenos Aires and on 10 October he gave Argentina this concordat. Paul VI hailed this pact with a military dictator as “the first fruit in the field of Church-state relations of the Ecumenical Council Vatican II.”* |
