Is Argentina a Catholic Country?

The present essay is inspired by a contemporary Chilean saint, St. Alberto Hurtado, who in 1941 published a work that would become a classic of Latin American social thought: ¿Es Chile un país católico? Alberto Hurtado’s question was not posed out of rancor or resentment, but from a reflection on the relationship between faith, culture, and social life. Father Hurtado observed that, although the vast majority of Chileans considered themselves Catholic, there was a considerable distance between the profession of faith and the concrete realities of that country. Thus, the question was not based solely on statistical-religious grounds, but on the coherence between Catholic principles and the social, economic, and political structures.

Eighty years later, Alberto Hurtado’s idea remains relevant, and Argentina may ask itself the same question. At first glance, the answer seems easy to give, for as a country we have a deep Catholic tradition and our national history is permeated by the Church’s presence throughout our colonial, patriotic, and constitutional history. Evangelization accompanied the process of conquest and settlement, and religious institutions participated in the formation of society; here the Church had a significant presence in education, social assistance, and public life. This caused the Argentine and the Catholic to be closely linked concepts.

For much of the 20th century, various political and intellectual sectors held that Argentina constituted a Catholic nation. This conceptualization was not limited to recognizing the importance of Catholicism, but understood that national identity was intimately linked to Christian tradition. For many thinkers, Argentina could not live without Catholicism, nor could it understand Argentine customs derived from Catholicism, and it was for this reason that Catholicism was not merely a religion, but a way of understanding community, family, and a sense of belonging.

In recent decades, however, 21st-century society has brought with it a set of transformations, as has occurred in much of Western civilization: the advance of secularization in Argentine society leading to multiculturalism, where new generations have encountered the practices of new religions, the expansion of individualism, and a growing distance from traditional institutions. Fewer people regularly participate in religious activities, while those who define themselves as indifferent or simply distant from faith have increased.

Available data reflect this transformation. The Second National Survey on Religious Beliefs and Attitudes conducted by CEIL-CONICET in 2019 shows a decline from 76.5% in 2008 to 62% nationally, highlighting the growth of people considered atheist or agnostic, as well as the rise of evangelical communities. These data do not define the total decline of Catholicism, but do evidence a loss of centrality that long characterized the country’s majority religion.

Focusing on the fundamental question: what does it mean for a country to be Catholic? If the answer is limited to demographic issues, it is enough to show that the majority of the population continues to identify with that religious tradition. For St. Alberto Hurtado, this question demands deeper analysis, for a truly Catholic society cannot be defined exclusively by the number of the baptized or by the presence of religious symbols or devotion to a saint: the decisive issue was to what extent the fundamental values of Christianity effectively permeated collective life. The discussion transcends the religious to enter the cultural, ethical, and social terrain. A nation may preserve churches, processions, and religious festivities, yet at the same time develop social practices that have little to do with religious practice—such as the debate over the right to abortion, sexual morality, and positions related to the family, to name a few examples. The question is not quantitative, but to what extent the ideals associated with Catholicism remain in force and are oriented toward national life, which makes it no simple question.

Moreover, Argentina retains a tradition of social solidarity, expressed in numerous community organizations, parishes, movements, and assistance institutions that carry out quiet, constant work. Concern for the most vulnerable, the valuation of human dignity, and the pursuit of social justice are part of a cultural heritage that can hardly be understood outside Christian influence. National reality also presents phenomena that contradict the principles taught by the Church: the persistence of high levels of poverty, social fragmentation, corruption, violence, and growing distrust of institutions reveal deep tensions between expressed values and observed facts. To this is added the privatization of faith, a phenomenon that occupies a place within the political sphere, where today it tends to be conceived as an individual matter; this transformation does not necessarily imply the disappearance of religious belief, but does profoundly alter the link with culture and politics.

Today’s Argentina is a more plural society than that of previous generations, for it is home to different religious traditions, secular worldviews, and diverse ways of understanding human life. This pluralism is a feature of contemporary democracies and forces us to rethink the meaning of inherited collective identities. In this context, we may affirm that Argentina is a Catholic country, but with different nuances. From a historical and cultural point of view, it is difficult to deny the profound influence Catholicism has exerted on national identity: institutions, customs, language, and much of the collective imagination continue to reflect that heritage. The diversity of beliefs, the decline in religious practice, and processes of secularization have significantly transformed the place Catholicism occupies in society.

More than eighty years have passed since the publication of ¿Es Chile un país católico?, a question that remains relevant—not to measure the number of believers or attendance at religious ceremonies, but because it invites us to examine the distance between the values a society professes and the behaviors it actually practices.

The central issue is not to determine how many Argentines identify as Catholic, but to ask ourselves what kind of society we have built. We live in a country where solidarity coexists with indifference, where concern for the vulnerable coexists with high levels of exclusion, and where appeals to transcendent values often clash with a culture marked by individualism, fragmentation, and distrust. In this sense, the central question of this article about Argentina’s Catholic character transcends the religious realm, interrogating our relationship with our neighbor, our capacity to build community, and the place occupied by responsibility, commitment, and the common good in collective life. Beyond the personal beliefs of each Argentine, every society needs principles that guide coexistence and give meaning to our bonds.

Perhaps Argentina continues to be a Catholic country; perhaps it no longer is in a homogeneous sense, as it once was at some point in history. What is certain is that the central question remains open, and precisely its relevance is preserved because it forces a society to interrogate not only what it believes itself to be, but also what it actually is. There lies its currency, for it is less a discussion about a religion than a reflection on contemporary Argentine society: on its virtues and contradictions, its gestures of generosity and its forms of indifference, its ideals and frustrations. To ask whether Argentina is a Catholic country is, at bottom, to ask what values guide our life together today and what kind of national community we wish to build for the future.

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Selected Bibliography

• Casas, Martín. The Gospel Preached to Argentines. 1st ed., LOGOS, Rosario, 2019.
• Hurtado, Alberto. ¿Es Chile un país católico? 1st ed., Splendor, Santiago de Chile, 1941.
• CEIL-CONICET. Second National Survey on Religious Beliefs and Attitudes in Argentina (2019).