Diocesan hierarchies and regular clergy in the process of ecclesiastical reform (Río Cuarto, 1935-1948)

Abstract

With the purpose of reinforcing and consolidating its institutional structures, the Catholic Church undertook from the middle of the 19th century a set of measures aimed at centralizing and making effective the hierarchical authority over the clergy and Catholics. The one that sought an adaptation of the ecclesiastical structure to the administrative one of the States and a greater efficiency in the ecclesiastical government over the territories stood out. In keeping with these Vatican directives, in the mid-1930s the Argentine Church reformed its territorial and administrative organization with the creation of new dioceses and the elevation of some of those already present to archdioceses. Although there is a widespread consensus that this process was far from simple, automatic or homogeneous, this did not necessarily translate into studies that deepened its reconstruction within the different diocesan jurisdictions. In this sense, in the present work we propose to analyze, from a reduced scale, the implementation of strategies aimed at materializing the presence of hierarchies over new territories and imposing their authority on the clergy who were subordinate to them. We then focus our analysis on the maneuvers carried out by the first bishop of the Rio Cuarto diocese, Monsignor Leopoldo Buteler, in particular those aimed at diluting, absorbing and / or replacing the ties that had traditionally united the Franciscan order with the local elite, also giving an account of the different types of resistance tested against the advance of the bishopric and how both were closely linked to political life.