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.
The Virgin Mary is the patroness of Argentina — and also of its military, whose junta issued many stamps in her honour. From 1976 to 1983 Argentina suffered seven years of terror under this junta, known as the Dirty War. [1] Conservative counts list over 30,000 people who "disappeared", that is to say, were arrested, tortured and secretly executed. One method was the "death flight". [2] The victims were loaded into military aircraft and dropped alive into the sea.
In 2003 President Nestor Kirchner took office and shortly afterwards suspended the immunity enjoyed by former military leaders. His democratic, left-of-centre government has also moved to liberalise the Supreme Court. And in February 2005 his Minister of Health announced that the government intends to legalise abortion. Back-street abortions are the most frequent cause of maternal deaths in Argentina today.
However, it was the government's campaign to reduce AIDS that led to the concordat crisis. In February 2005 when the Health Minister approved the distribution of free condoms to young people Bishop Antonio Juan Baseotto felt moved to declare that "those who scandalise little ones should have a stone tied around their neck and be thrown into the sea". [3] The Bishop claimed, of course, that he was merely quoting the loving words of Christ from the Gospel of Saint Mark.
Even so, many Argentineans were not convinced. In particular, the remarks of the military bishop were not appreciated by the Mothers of the Plaza de Mayo. These are the women who defied the junta by demonstrating every week in the plaza, seeking information about their children who had disappeared into the torture chambers and the sea.
The Minister of Health has publicly charged that Bishop Baseotto has "well-oiled links with the last military dictatorship". [4] (He is seen here on his March 2004 "pastoral visit" to the 9th Mechanised Brigade.) [5] And this, of course, this is the Bishop who has charitably excused the junta's use of torture and murder as "excesses that are impossible to avoid in a war." [6]
But the scandal resonated well beyond Argentina, since Bishop Baseotto is no ordinary prelate. Under the terms of a concordat signed with the Vatican in 2002, Argentina agreed to pay for a military chaplaincy and Baseotto is the Bishop responsible for this. In February 2005 President Kirchner asked the Vatican to replace the Military Bishop, but three weeks later his request was refused. On 18 March 2005 President Kirchner issued two decrees. The first withdrew his support for the 2002 concordat by which the Vatican had appointed the military bishop. And the second decree cancelled public funding for the Bishop's chaplaincy, including his salary.
The Vatican then protested that this was an attack on "religious freedom" and even a violation of "international law". [7] For in 2002, when the Vatican signed the agreement, it did so as "the Holy See", the name it uses when it claims to be a country. This removed the accord from democratic control and made state support for the chaplaincy permanent. As soon as they were bound by a concordat or "international treaty", the Argentine Parliament had no further say in the matter, for international law has priority over national legislation.
Technically, of course, this violates an international treaty. However, no one seems too worried about an imminent attack on Buenos Aires by helmeted Swiss Guards brandishing swords and pikes. Kirchner's cancellation of the concordat has swept away a make-believe treaty with a make-believe state. This week Argentina has shown that a concordat can be broken. What is needed to do this is a presidential decree — and the strength to brave a Vatican tirade.
Notes
1. Richard W. Slatta, Argentina's Dirty War, 1976-1983 (class notes for Prof. Slata's History 216 at North Carolina State University). http://social.chass.ncsu.edu/slatta/hi216/documents/dirtywar.htm
2. Jonathan Mann, "Macabre new details emerge about Argentina's 'dirty war' ", CNN, 23 March 1996. http://edition.cnn.com/WORLD/9603/argentina.war/index.html
3. "Argentinean government withdraws recognition of bishop", Catholic News Agency, 21 March 2005. http://www.catholicnewsagency.com/new.php?n=3408
4. “Argentina: Despite Vatican, President Sacks Controversial Military Bishop” Inter Press Service News Agency, 18 March 2005. http://ipsnews.net/news.asp?idnews=27933
5. "Visita Pastoral en el ámbito de la IXna Brigada Mecanizada", 8-12 March 2004. http://www.vtocuerpo.ejercito.mil.ar/noticias_mar2004.htm
6. “Argentina: Despite Vatican, President Sacks Controversial Military Bishop” Inter Press Service News Agency, 18 March 2005. http://ipsnews.net/news.asp?idnews=27933
7. "Argentina, Vatican clash on bishop's dismissal", Catholic World News, 21 March 2005. http://www.cwnews.com/news/viewstory.cfm?recnum=35986
