The Church describes excommunication as medicinal. Like many medicines, it can take some time to achieve its desired effect. In the case of excommunication, it may take years, as it did in the life of notorious Argentinian president, Juan Perón.
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We're in Argentina, in Buenos Aires, 1955. In power is one of the most charismatic and controversial figures of the 20th century, President Juan Domingo Perón. At first, the relationship between Perón and the Argentine Catholic Church was fantastic. But absolute power, as we know, doesn't like competition.
As the government begins taking an increasingly authoritarian turn, the Church starts keeping its distance. Perón doesn't take it well, and decides to strike back at the Vatican. Within a few months, the Peronist government launches a series of targeted attacks. It legalizes divorce, shuts down Catholic schools, bans religious processions, and organizes street protests against priests.
The tension is through the roof. But the true red line is crossed in mid-June 1955. Perón has two high-ranking prelates arrested and expelled from Argentina, forcing them onto a flight bound for Rome. There's no need for an ecclesiastical court. No need for a direct intervention by the Pope. Canon law speaks clearly.
Anyone who uses physical violence against a bishop or impedes their ministry immediately incurs an automatic excommunication, known as Latte Sententiae. The day after the expulsion, a Vatican department issues a public statement. It simply confirms what canon law already established on its own.
Perón and the members of his government, having driven out the bishops, have excommunicated themselves. And this time, the cold shower has immediate consequences. In a deeply Catholic country like Argentina, that declaration shatters the president's last pillar of legitimacy. The armed forces, backed by a large portion of the population, rise up. Just three months later, Perón is overthrown by a military coup and forced to flee the country.
The general's story seems to end here, defeated and exiled. But the final plot twist happens in 1963. Perón is living in exile in Madrid. The former strongman of Argentina, now elderly, writes a letter of repentance to Pope John XXIII, asking for forgiveness for the damage caused to the church. On February 13th of that year, he kneels before the Archbishop of Madrid, who absolves him in the name of the Pope.
