(ZENIT News / Buenos Aires, 03.01.2024).- In a recent press release the Argentine Episcopal Conference (AEC) announced the conclusion of the process carried out by Archbishops, diocesan Bishops and Auxiliary Bishops, specified on the last working day of December 2023, following the guidelines established during the Plenary Assembly and notified to the Nation’s Secretariat of Worship.
Highlighted, in response to consultations received, was that, according to a resolution of April 26, 2023, of the Foreign Relations, International Commerce and Worship Ministry, the Archbishops and Bishops that left their office due to age or invalidity, would be able to request, individually, and complying with certain requisites, the benefit of the allocation provided for in the law.
The press release specified that the current allocation reaches 98,000 pesos.
This step marks the fulfilment of the announcement made by the AEC in 2018, expressing the intention to give up, gradually, State funds, which at the time represented some 130 million pesos annually. In July 2020, the Bishops made progress in the implementation of the Ecclesial Financing Program, geared to ensuring funds through donors to finance pastoral works in the country.
Although the State contribution covered only 10% of the Church’s total budget, destined primarily to monthly allocations to Bishops, border parish priests and diocesan seminarians, it was crucial for dioceses with fewer resources.
Made evident in an article in El Clarin newspaper was that, although the amount of the contribution wasn’t significant, “it sparked controversy because it implied a permanent contribution to the support of a specific religion of a non-Confessional State and because it was established by a law of the last dictatorship.” The controversy grew during the debate of approval of abortion.
