Catholic Church in Argentina

The Argentine Catholic Church, or Catholic Church in Argentina, is part of the worldwide Catholic Church, under the spiritual leadership of the Pope, the Curia in Rome, and the Argentine Episcopal Conference.

According to the CIA World Factbook (July 2014), 92% of the country are nominally Catholic, but less than 20% practice their faith regularly (i.e., attend weekly Mass). Later studies in 2019 suggest that between 62.9% and 63.3% of Argentinians are Catholic. No study has yet determined whether Catholics with higher levels of traditional religious observance are more likely than those with lower levels to participate in any cultural Catholic activities such as participating in online conversations about Catholicism's customs, beliefs, etc., sharing Catholic holidays with family, or engaging in political and social activism as an expression of Catholicism. In 2020, such a study was made of American Jews, comparing and contrasting nominally Jewish adherents with those who practice their faith weekly.

Today, the church in Argentina is divided into administrative territorial units called dioceses and archdioceses. Buenos Aires, for example, is a metropolitan archdiocese owing to its size and historical significance as the capital of the nation.

An archbishop of Buenos Aires, Cardinal Jorge Bergoglio (later Pope Francis), SJ, was elected as Pope on 13 March 2013 in the 2013 papal conclave. Buenos Aires Metropolitan Cathedral, the seat of the archbishop, also houses the remains of General José de San Martín in a mausoleum.

There are eight Catholic universities in Argentina: Pontifical Catholic University of Argentina (Buenos Aires), the Universidad Católica de Córdoba, the Universidad Católica de La Plata, the Universidad Católica de Salta, the Universidad Católica de Santa Fe, the Universidad Católica de Cuyo, the Universidad Católica de las Misiones, and the Catholic University of Santiago del Estero.