AN ARGENTINE PERSPECTIVE a Discussion with Practitioners and Academics Orfalea Center for Global & International Studies University of California, Santa Barbara
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THE ROLE OF RELIGION IN GLOBAL CIVIL SOCIETY: AN ARGENTINE PERSPECTIVE A Discussion with Practitioners and Academics Orfalea Center for Global & International Studies University of California, Santa Barbara at Universidad del Cema Buenos Aires, Argentina August, 2009 Sponsored by the Henry R. Luce Initiative on Religion and International Affairs LIST OF PARTICIPANTS: Mercedes Carluccio Fernando López-Alves Project Director, Global Democracy Professor of Sociology, UCSB and Special Carlos Escudé Advisor, CEIEG Director, Centro de Estudios Internacionales y Leonor Slavsky de Educacion para la Globalizacion (CEIEG) Senior researcher, National Institute of Universidad del Cema (UCEMA) Anthropology, National Culture Secretariat Victor Faessel Program Director, Orfalea Center for Global & An Opportunistic Collaboration International Studies, UCSB Kurt Frieder The purpose of this Buenos Aires workshop was outlined by Mark Juergensmeyer, Director of the Founder and Director, Fundacion Huesped Orfalea Center for Global and International Studies Rebeca González Esteves at UC Santa Barbara, who said that he hoped it Graduate Student, UCEMA would provide insights into the variety of ways in which religion and global civil society relate in the Giles Gunn Latin American context. The workshop was part of a Chair , Global & International Studies Program four-year project on Religion in Global Civil Society University of California, Santa Barbara organized by the Orfalea Center and funded by the Henry Luce Foundation, a project that will create Beatriz Gurevich resource materials for those graduate programs in Special Advisor, CEIEG (UCEMA) global studies and international affairs that provide Mark Juergensmeyer training for future leaders of international non- government service and humanitarian organizations. Director, Orfalea Center for Global & The workshop benefited from the participation of International Studies, UCSB influential Argentinian academic and civil society Sebastián Kobaru leaders, who helped to identify some of the issues Graduate Student, UCEMA that the Orfalea Center will deliberate during the 2009-10 academic year when the focus of the project is on Latin America. 2 Constitutional Tie to the Congress is granted power to approve or reject treaties and concordats concluded with the Vatican. Catholic Church Leonor Slavsky, workshop panelist and a contrib- “The Federal Government supports the uting member of the 1994 Constitutional Assem- Roman Catholic Apostolic religion.” bly, was instrumental in representing rights for in- CHAPTER 1, SECTION 2, digenous people in the new constitution. Argentina’s CONSTITUTION OF THE ARGENTINE NATION indigenous population — estimated at between 700,000 and 1.5 million — is granted special ethnic, cultural and other rights under the argentine con- stitution. Enforcement of those rights, however, is inconsistent. Of the 23 provinces, only eleven recog- nize indigenous rights in their constitutions. With some exceptions, Argentine government pro- tocol has historically tended to honor the Catho- lic Church. Bishops often have a place alongside ministers, governors and other officials in patriotic ceremonies. At the important May Revolution cel- ebration, for instance, Argentina’s president along with his or her spouse and ministers is expected to attend the Te Deum, celebrated by the Archbishop of Buenos Aires. Throughout Argentina’s history, presi- dents have occasionally challenged the influence of the Church, but have never entirely eliminated the Church from state affairs. Religious Identity: How Argentines Identify Themselves and How They Practice Religion Catedral de la Plata. La Plata, Argentina. The contrast between the nominally prominent position of the Catholic Church in the Argentine Officially, the state religion of Argentina is Ro- constitution and the scant elaboration of any mean- man Catholicism. The first page of the Argentine ingful political role for it, mirrors what appears to constitution declares Catholicism as the state re- be the role that the Church plays in the day-to-day ligion, and allows for prominent recognition of lives of Argentines. Leonor Slavsky concurs with the Catholic Church in state functions. However, the opinion that the Catholic Church has a limited every subsequent mention of Catholicism in the role in Argentine society: “Here in Argentina, the constitution effectively limits the Church’s practi- Church is very close to the political and econom- cal political influence. For instance, reforms result- ic hierarchy but has limited influence in everyday ing from the efforts of the 1994 constitutional as- life... I think Argentina is a quite secular society. sembly eliminate the requirement for the president And that is why the Church can say no to abortion of the country to be a Roman Catholic. Another or divorce and people will do it anyhow.” Slavsky reform states: “Neither the regular members of the offered by way of explanation that early immi- clergy nor governors in representation of their own grants were not particularly religious: “The condi- provinces, may be members of Congress.” Finally, tions in Argentina were not the ones in which to 3 “The power that most of the people of Argentina self identify the Catholics as Roman Catholic, with dramatically smaller per- have here centages claiming Protestantism, Judaism, various – the link indigenous religions, and Islam. Recent decades between the have witnessed a rise of evangelicalism throughout Catholics the country. As in other parts of Latin America, and the the evangelical movement in Argentina has been government – formed largely by converts from Catholicism doesn’t imply among the lower classes. a connection between Rebeca Estevez, a graduate student of political religion and science at UCEMA who attended the meeting, society.” shared something of her religious attitude: “I am a Mercedes Carluccio, Program MERCEDES Catholic. I come from a Catholic family and I went Director, Global Democracy. CARLUCCIO to a Catholic school. But I have my own opinions about issues.” Workshop panelists confirmed that lead a religious life. They [immigrants with strong Rebecca’s religious identity reflects that of a large religious convictions] went to the U.S.” percentage of Argentines. Beatriz Gurevich, Special Advisor to CEIEG at Kurt Frieder explained that the Catholic Church is UCEMA, added that although liberation theology changing rapidly in Argentina. “The gap is grow- spread widely in Latin America after the Second ing between the hierarchy and the priests who are Vatican Council, it “never caught on in Argentina working in the community… People don’t believe because it was strongly opposed by the hierarchy, in the hierarchy, but on the other hand the priests and the state itself.” working in the community are finding solutions.” These priests “are working with evangelical church- Argentina hosts a broad range of religious practices es and Jewish rabbis… and they are doing things and forms of worship. Demographic data indicate together, specifically in social welfare.” The not-so-exceptional story of Fernando López-Alves I was born next door in Uruguay. My parents were immigrants from Spain. So, my contact with religion was to hate it, simply because my father was an anarchist. He came to Uru- guay to organize labor. I grew up playing dominoes with my father and his telling me every single day, “Do you see that [church] building there across the street ? These are our enemies. You shouldn’t go in there.” So of course I wanted to go in there. Our local priest offered a free movie every Saturday if you attended mass. So I attended mass—which I didn’t understand very much of—every Sat- urday. I [went] so I could see the adventures of Zoro and Gary Cooper and those old cowboy Fernando López-Alves shared the story of his family history and movies. They were free so, heck, religion was his relationship with religion. not that bad after all. 4 An example of this type of cooperation made the believe in God. Man is the partner of the creator… news several months before the workshop. A priest I got to know that people’s relations to religion are who denounced the use of drugs among youth was not so simple.” threatened by drug dealers. “It was a big deal that appeared in the newspapers and so on, and there was a big movement on behalf of this priest,” re- counted Mr. Frieder. “You had rabbis and evangeli- cal pastors who were working with [the priest]… and that was really great because you found that the social movements working in the lower parts of society, and especially in the poorer parts of society, are working together. And the hierarchy had noth- ing to do with that.” Commenting on his difficulties with Catholic dog- ma, Carlos Escudé explained: “I was born under Catholicism and I ceased to be a Catholic precisely because I disagreed.” Carlos eventually converted to Judaism. Beatriz Gurevich, Special Advisor to CEIEG, also talked a little about her religious background: “I was born in a Jewish family. My grandfather came from Vienna… He created an NGO in the prov- ince of Buenos Aires, a Jewish NGO. We are free thinkers. We are Jewish. So my relationship with Carlos Escudé, Director, Centro de Estudios religion was quite difficult. When I had my chil- Internacionales y de Educacion para la Globalizacion. dren I tried to teach them why we did not need to I studied philosophy and of course I became a pray before we could get to the food. I couldn’t socialist at the age of fourteen. I started to work understand that incredible dichotomy. He was a in politics a little bit before that, at the age of religious guy and I couldn’t get that. My relations twelve. I went with my father distributing a with religion have not been resolved to this day: newspaper that the anarchists have called El Sol my father’s voice versus my experience. There is a on the streets of Montevideo. Pretty soon Uru- connection between religiosity and rationality. At guay became something different than it used to UCSB I was director of a program in Washington be: the military dictatorship came in.