{"id":9858,"date":"2015-08-15T15:08:22","date_gmt":"2015-08-15T15:08:22","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/secularright.org\/SR\/wordpress\/?p=9858"},"modified":"2015-08-15T15:08:22","modified_gmt":"2015-08-15T15:08:22","slug":"the-pope-and-peronism","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/secularright.org\/SR\/wordpress\/the-pope-and-peronism\/","title":{"rendered":"The Pope and Peronism"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"PeronistPope\"<\/a>Cross-posted on the Corner.<\/p>\n

Uki Go\u00f1i has written an article for the New York Times<\/em> on Pope Francis\u2019s Peronist roots.Here\u2019s an extract: <\/p>\n

Less known is that Per\u00f3n took his cue from the politicized Catholic leaders of \u201930s Argentina. Church leaders back then sought the integration of Argentina\u2019s new working class by promoting radical labor reforms. Bishops addressed some of the country\u2019s first large rallies of workers, and Per\u00f3n cut his teeth speaking at meetings of the C\u00edrculos Cat\u00f3licos de Obreros (Catholic Worker Circles).<\/p>\n

Per\u00f3n\u2019s alliance with the bishops was sealed when the 1943-46 military regime, in which he was vice president, made Catholic education obligatory in Argentina\u2019s previously secular public schools. The process culminated in 1944 when Per\u00f3n decorated a statue of the Virgin Mary with a military sash and appointed her a \u201cgeneral,\u201d accompanied by a 21-gun salute.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Now that\u2019s a nice <\/em>touch, but, to be fair, it\u2019s worth noting that Per\u00f3n turned sharply against the church in the later part of his first stretch in power.<\/p>\n

Back to Go\u00f1i: <\/p>\n

\u201cNeither Marxists nor Capitalists. Peronists!\u201d was the chant of Per\u00f3n\u2019s supporters. And it was borrowing from the church\u2019s political thinking that enabled Per\u00f3n to found his \u201cThird Way.\u201d <\/p><\/blockquote>\n

It\u2019s perhaps a little more complicated than that. Per\u00f3n made a careful study of the politics of inter-war Europe (he was based there for a while) and essentially concluded that Argentina could learn most from the corporatism of fascist Italy, a corporatism that was itself partly a mutation of some of the political and economic ideas set out in De Rerum Novarum, a hugely influential late-19th-century encyclical. <\/p>\n

And Per\u00f3n was not the first to believe that he had found a \u201cthird way\u201d between socialism and capitalism, a notion that was the conceit of a number of Roman Catholic intellectuals in the early 20th century, not least G. K. Chesterton, a rather better writer than economist (interestingly, shortly before he became pope, the then Cardinal Bergoglio approved the wording of a private prayer calling for Chesterton\u2019s canonization).<\/p>\n

Francis has also borrowed quite a bit of Peronist style too. Reading an article in CapX by Federico N. Fern\u00e1ndez about the upcoming Argentine election, this passage made me think of the way Francis has of scattering villains, straw men and hints of conspiracy in some of his more overtly political speeches:<\/p>\n

The [Peronist] Kirchner couple has had three consecutive terms in office since 2003. In these twelve years they have isolated Argentina from the rest of the world and their hate mongering tactics have fractured and polarized society.<\/p>\n

Following the intellectual guidance of Ernesto Laclau (1935\u20132014), the Kirchners have run their administration on the basis of constant conflict and the \u201cfriend \/ foe\u201d logic\u2026The Kirchners divided society between \u201cthe people\u201d and different enemies \u2013 a kind of satanic anti-people who is constantly plotting to undermine the achievements of the \u201cpopular government.\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

In describing Peronist rule, Go\u00f1i writes that \u201cthe populist general upended Argentina\u2019s class structure by championing the country\u2019s downtrodden\u201d. There\u2019s quite a bit to that (although Per\u00f3n\u2019s policies should also be read as an expression of Argentine caudillismo), but what he does not say is that Peronism ended in economic disaster, a fact that has not stopped Pope Francis from peddling a very similar brand of snake oil for reasons, I suspect, that do not do him credit. <\/p>\n

Links
\nhttp:\/\/www.nationalreview.com\/corner\/422510\/pope-and-peronism-andrew-stuttaford
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