Anyone who doubts that the Catholic Church is not as formidable in the Latin American political sphere as it once was, should take note of the reaction in Argentina over the past few days to remarks by Pope Benedict that the number of people living below the poverty line in that country is “scandalous.”

Last Friday the country’s oldest broadsheet, La Nacion, devoted ten of its first eleven pages to the Pontiff’s remarks and reaction to it and President Cristina Fernandez y Kirchner and her husband Nestor, who preceded her in the job, quickly feel into line agreeing with the Pontiff’s remarks, while one of their key advisers attempted to keep a lid on this toxic issue.

According to the Catholic Church in Argentina, and its estimate is consistent with others, the number of people living below the poverty line is around 40 percent. The Kirchner Administration had previously put it at 15 percent, and it has refused to release new poverty numbers for over 12 months.

After the Pope’s comments, contained in a letter sent Thursday to a Catholic Church charity, hit the media the political and media commentary went into a frenzied overdrive. The response from the Casa Rosada (as the Presidential Palace in down town Buenos Aires is called) was fork-tongued. The “Cristina and Nestor” spin was that they wholeheartedly agreed with the Pope and Nestor, sounding a little like Bob Hawke in the 1990 election campaign when he promised no child would live in poverty, said that his wife’s Administration has already reduced poverty, and “we are going to defeat it for everyone.”

But meanwhile the Kirchner Administration’s senior adviser Anibal Fernandez was busy warning the media and political opponents to back off. The Pope’s statement was “routine” he said, and he “begged” the media to “consider what they say.”

Pope Benedict and his Argentinean bishops have scored a pr coup by shifting the political focus onto poverty in this country, which is rich in agriculture, mineral resources and manufacturing. And when one wanders around the streets of Buenos Aires it is evident that this is not a nation in which so many should be so poor.

The grand architecture of the 19th century in Buenos Aires earned it the title of the Paris of the South. In fact, a comparison with Melbourne buildings of the same period is not of out place and that is because the Argentinean economy and that of Victoria were similarly prosperous in the late 19th century. But take a closer look and the story of bifurcation emerges before your eyes.

In Buenos Aires, too many of the grand old buildings sit idly, decaying through lack of available funds for their upkeep.

This comparison is not an original one. Over twenty years ago, economic historian and journalist Tim Duncan coined the phrase the “Argentinean road” to describe where Australia was headed if it did not embrace economic reform. Duncan had spent time in Argentina and chronicled the parallel success stories of Australia and Argentina up until the First World War and the stellar decline in the former due to corruption, political instability and heavy state intervention.

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