Argentina: Supreme Court guarantees autonomy of religious groups

Diario Judicial reported on 21 April 2023 that Argentina’s Supreme Court of Justice had unanimously confirmed the ruling that religious groups have autonomy of doctrine. It is thus not legally possible to modify the ecclesiastical records of baptism and confirmation, for instance, to adapt them to new names and self-perceived gender identities.

World Watch Research analyst Rossana Ramirez comments: “If a body like the Catholic Church had been required to adapt baptismal certificates, for instance, the Court ruling makes it clear that this would be an unacceptable interference by the state authorities and a violation of religious freedom. The legal case brought to the judges was a clear attempt by a pressure group to impose its ideology on core Church teaching. It is significant that such a high-ranking judicial body has clarified that the autonomy of the Church in no way represents a violation of the neutrality of the state; on the contrary, this ruling is seen as giving proper balance to the relationship between Church and state.”