The 1934 International Eucharistic Conference in Argentina signified decades of advocacy and work by Catholic Nationalists and Conservative factions to solidify the notion of the "Catholic nation." Around these years, we can see a proliferation of Protestants combatting their Catholic opponents with rhetoric around notions of citizenry and patriotism. This period saw the pitching of nationalism from both ends, one with a rigid integralist/conservative Catholic vision and the other espousing a Protestant civic liberal position. From the disintegration of the colonial order in 1810, Catholicism in Argentina had an unstable place in the budding nation-state. Criticized by liberals in the government and society in these early years, Catholics would emerge with a political victory in 1853 as the promulgated constitution enshrined that Argentina was officially a "Catholic nation" if only legally. During the following decades, Argentina saw hundreds of thousands of immigrants arriving to work in the expanding agricultural sector, urban factories, and the trades. These "foreigners," in many cases, were Protestant immigrants coming from Europe, Canada, and the United Kingdom. For decades to follow, the Catholic Conservative order and nationalist factions would work hard to restore the Catholic church to a place of influence and power but now found themselves “invaded” by a new enemy, Protestants. In many cases, these Protestants brought visions of democratic liberalism, and their advocacy for the separation of Church and state went against the Catholic ultramontane and integralist political aspirations.
While religious skirmishes occurred between Catholic leaders and Protestants in the years leading to the 1930s-40s, it was not until these decades that a socio-political reunification between the Catholic church and the military was established. The coup d’état of 1930 heralded a political new dawn and a repositioning of Catholic influence in society. My project attempts to place a historical lens in thinking about how religion was weaponized alongside political projects, in this case, anti-Protestant sentiments, through these decades. In the 1940s, anti-Protestantism, seeded ideologically in previous decades, would become state policy under the Presidency of Juan Domingo Peron. While Federico Finchelstein has shown the “transatlantic fascist” connection between Europe and Argentina, I am specifically interested in how the Catholic church and political supporters embraced aspects of nationalist politics and made it "autochthonous” to Argentina's situation. This process of “contextualization” of nationalism to the Argentine socio-political condition by Catholics is unique, especially in their attempt to portray Protestants as dangerous both politically and religiously. The uses of counter-reformation, ethno-nationalist, and religio-nationalist arguments against Protestants are present in archival materials, from newspapers to diocesan newsletters. This paper seeks to understand global Catholic currents within the context of nationalist politics yet with an eye to its application to a local context where Protestantism was seen as “imperialist” and radically dangerous. Through extensive archival research and the analysis of material culture both in Argentina and the USA, I will show how this phenomenon took place and the importance of these narratives in our understanding of Latin American Catholic social and political history. This paper takes the period of the 1930-1940s as a critical point to understand these two positions that articulated their disparate visions through the language of patriotism and nationalism. Through a reconceptualization of the past, Catholics and Protestants sought to establish themselves as proper "heirs" to the construction of the Argentine political project. Thus, Nationalism becomes the center point of these contested visions of democratic common life. This paper is based on a historical retrieval of arguments in print material and archives from the period.
The 1934 International Eucharistic Conference in Argentina signified decades of advocacy and work by Catholic Nationalists to perpetuate the mythos of the "Catholic nation." Around these years, we can see a proliferation of Protestants combatting their Catholic opponents with rhetoric around notions of citizenry and patriotism. This period saw the pitching of nationalism from both ends, one with a rigid integralist/conservative Catholic vision and the other espousing a Protestant civic liberal position. This paper takes the period of the 1930-1940s as a critical point to understand these two positions that articulated their disparate visions through the language of patriotism and nationalism. Through a reconceptualization of the past, Catholics and Protestants sought to establish themselves as proper "heirs" to the construction of the Argentine political project. Thus, Nationalism becomes the center point of these contested visions of democratic common life.