NOT ALL ROADS LEADS TO ROME. THE IMPOSSIBLE CONCORDAT BETWEEN ARGENTINA AND THE HOLY SEE (1810-1860)

Argentina presents a singularity, in religious matters, within the context of Latin America: unlike all other countries, with the sole exception of Costa Rica, it never separated Catholic Church and State. Furthermore, and in this case unlike Costa Rica, it never signed a concordat with the Holy See either. This did not prevent the country, however, from being the birthplace of the first pope born in the "New World". This article attempts to explain that the reasons for this apparent paradox were the conditions in which ecclesiastical life developed in the first half century of independent life, the way in which Argentine liberalism was related to the inherited religion, and the zeal with which it defended at the same time the national patronage and religious freedom.