Digital resources in the Social Sciences and Humanities OpenEdition Our platforms OpenEdition Books OpenEdition Journals Hypotheses Calenda Libraries OpenEdition Freemium Follow us

Pius XII and the Catholic Global South

The Case of Argentina

Martina Weisz

My work focuses on the Catholic Church’s role in Argentina during the papacy of Pius XII. In that period, different and sometimes even contradictory trends coexisted inside the Catholic Church. On the one hand, parts of the clergy were actively involved in giving form and advancing an updated version of the “sacred union” between the State and the Church that had both founded and legitimized the Spanish Empire. On the other hand, Catholics went through processes of intellectual reform in that period, which would eventually lead to the emergence of liberal movements of Liberation Theology and Christian-Democracy. These developments had a lasting influence not only on the history of Argentina and Latin America, but also on theological and political trends which changed the face of the globe.