Néstor T. Auza is an Argentine historian specializing in nineteenth-century Catholic themes from an orthodox Catholic perspective. His recent book does not fully reflect the expectations of its title, Social Currents in Argentine Catholicism. The book, in fact, is a standard treatment of the Catholic congresses held in Argentina between 1884 and 1921, with special emphasis on participants and resolutions. The general historical context is treated lightly, and many protagonists are hardly analyzed in relation to their role in contemporary Argentine history.
The book relies heavily on the congresses’ proceedings and the period’s Catholic newspapers and journals. It may be useful to specialists in Argentine history of late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries who want to explore the positions of Catholic sectors vis-à-vis a wide array of topics, during the political rule of the liberal oligarchy and Hipólito Yrigoyen’s first presidency.
After a useful introductory chapter, the author follows a chronological order to present and briefly comment on themes and resolutions from the Catholic congresses held between 1884 and 1921. They were: First, Second, and Third Congresses of Argentine Catholics (1884, 1907, 1908); First, Second, and Third Franciscan Congresses (1903, 1906, 1921); First and Second Congresses of the Catholic Youth (1908, 1915); the Catholic Pedagogic Congress (1910); First National Congress of the Catholic Press (1918); and the First Congress of Latin American Social Catholics (1919).
Topics most frequently debated in those congresses were the relationships between Catholics and politics—including the socialist and anarchist ideologies— educational matters (in light of the existing legislation) and the teaching of the catechism, the need for a Catholic University, the situation of the Catholic press, the social question, and labor legislation (the resolutions from the 1919 Congress of Social Catholics, reproduced on pp. 381–396, are an extremely valid antecedent for a better understanding of the “social Catholic” dimension of Peronism’s labor legislation in the 1940s).
Auza’s work is quite useful in allowing the reader to trace the major themes of Catholic thought in that era, both in the laity as in the priesthood; but he falls short of explaining the reasons why the ecclesiastical hierarchy, in the 1920s, discouraged and opposed the continuation of this lively movement of public congresses and discussions (his reference on p. 22 about the direct intervention by the bishops in lay movements and associations surely is insufficient).
The book under review is a modest, archival contribution to the history of Catholic thought in Argentina from a partisan position. The documentary section, however, which takes a good fourth of the text, can be read with profit by all those interested in the topic. The real history of Catholic thought and action in that period still remains to be written.