Argentina is a federal republic with a government structure similar to many Western democracies, but with a turbulent history of episodic military rule and brutal repression of leftist movements. The population is overwhelmingly Catholic, but Evangelical communities are growing and a 2015 law gives non-Catholic groups many of the same registration privileges as the Catholic Church. Religious freedom is constitutionally guaranteed, and anti-Christian pressure is felt not so much from the national government as it is provincially. A 2001 law adopted in the central state of Córdoba outlaws “psychological manipulation”, ostensibly a measure to discourage cults but which has ensnared Evangelical Christians. The Argentinian requirement for church registration, and its sensitivity to cults, may be understood partly as a vestige of a 1978 law that put large obstacles in front of minority sects seeking official recognition. The law was imposed by the military dictatorship of the time to identify possible subversives. (Photo by Brian Gratwicke, via Flickr, CC)

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Argentinian priest transferred due to drug traffickers’ threats

Police in Buenos Aires, 2013. (Flickr / Beatrice Murch / CC)

An Argentinian priest has been transferred from his parish due to repeated threats from drug traffickers, reports Agenzia Fides. His bishop, Fernando Carlos Maletti, made the decision to transfer Father Eduardo Farrell due to the continued threat of violence in the Sagrado Corazon parish of Merlo-Morena diocese, 25 miles west […]

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