El presupuesto de culto en la Argentina y sus debates: Estado y sociedad ante el proceso de construcción de la Iglesia (1853-1880)

in order to understand what the creation of the catholic church state budget in 1853 meant it is not enough to take into consideration the presence of a liberal state which had the attribution to support the catholic worship. according to our point of view, it is also necessary to pay attention to the concept of state and church which justified and validated the existence of that budget in argentina. our premise is that its origin leads to a discussion not only about the relationship between state and church and the degree of autonomy of the latter as regards the first, but also about the relation between the process of formation of both, the argentine national state and the national catholic church. we must not forget that neither the church nor the state were fully consolidated in argentina when that budget was created. far from attempting against the church autonomy, it contributed to build the argentine church on a more solid basis than before. the tithe system, being very confused and contradictory, had been suppressed by the church reform in buenos aires in 1822, but it was still in use in the provinces of the country until 1853.