MercoPress. South Atlantic News Agency

Catholic Church “perceives” growing poverty in Argentina

Bishop Jorge Casaretto, head of the Argentine Catholic Church Social Pastoral Committee said that perception at the moment ”is that poverty (in Argentina) is increasing”. The statement contradicts a recent Argentine government report indicating that poverty had fallen to 20.7% in the second half of 2007 compared to the previous 23.4%.

Talking this week to a Buenos Aires radio Continental, Monsignor Casaretto said that based on the conclusions drawn by the Social Observatory of the Argentine Catholic University, "which tracks poverty very closely," poverty was actually growing. "They track statistics closely but we also have another index which is the parochial branch of Cáritas, which shows that people are going to their parishes to ask for more food than before. That perception is the one that tells us that poverty is growing," said Casaretto, who is a former leader of the Church's Cáritas charity arm. He also said that the relationship between the government and the Church was "institutional" and this has been a trademark of this government regarding the Church. "I talk to with many officials. Hence, there is no broken dialogue. There is no belligerent attitude. Perhaps there is some distance, but that distance can be interpreted from the point of view of the government and also from the point of view of the Church." The bishop also said that there is no dispute between Church and State, adding that the "points of conflict" have actually more to do with the Vatican than with Argentina's Synod. Sometimes there are "some pending conflicts" such as the unease of the Vatican after Argentina proposed divorcee Alberto Iribarne as envoy to the Vatican, Casaretto said according to the private news agency DyN. Argentine government officials have said that the Vatican was delaying the approval of Iribarne because he is divorced. Casaretto also said that another pending issue was the failure by the government to appoint a military chaplain after the controversy regarding Monsignor Antonio Baseotto, who quit that post after reaching retirement age. "These are the two most conflictive issues and both are beyond the Argentine Synod," Casaretto said. The government of Néstor Kirchner â€" husband and predecessor of Mrs. Kirchner â€" suspended Baseotto after he suggested that a minister should be drowned in the sea for his defense of abortion. The government at that time urged the Vatican to remove Baseotto, a request the Vatican ignored. Last May Pope Benedict XVI accepted the resignation of Baseotto on age grounds. In 2005 Baseotto wrote a letter criticizing then Health Minister Ginés González García for suggesting that Argentina should widen the few cases in which it admits abortion. Baseotto paraphrased a Biblical passage saying that if someone offends a child, it would be better for him ''to drown in the sea with a millstone hung from his neck." Those words caused a shock among many Argentines who recalled the military dictatorship of 1976-1983 that used to throw people alive from aircraft into the sea. Church officials in several opportunities criticized what they described as a biased human rights policy by the former Néstor Kirchner administration. The then president accused some of the Church officials of having turned a blind eye to the atrocities committed by the dictatorship. The administration of Cristina Fernández has seemed to adopt a more conciliatory stance towards the Church. It was Mrs. Kirchner who during a ceremony at Government House last week ratified a recent government report that said that poverty had fallen to 20.7%, data which was questioned by private consultants and politicians. (BAH/MP).