Francis elevated the diocese of Santiago del Estero, Argentina, to an archdiocese and named its archbishop, Vicente Bokalic Iglic, Primate of Argentina on 22 July.
Until now the Primate of Argentina has been the Archbishop of Buenos Aires.
The capital Buenos Aires has three million inhabitants, the unknown provincial capital Santiago del Estero 250,000.
The transfer of the title of Primate will be celebrated on 25 August in Buenos Aires and on 7 September in Santiago del Estero. As such, the title is meaningless.
The official excuse for the transfer of the title is that Santiago del Estero, founded in 1550, is the oldest continuously inhabited city in Argentina. Buenos Aires was founded by the Spanish in 1536, but abandoned after a bad harvest and only repopulated in 1580.
Other more likely reasons for Francis's whimsical decision include his dissatisfaction with his successor as Archbishop of Buenos Aires, the homosexual propagandist Jorge García Cuerva.
Francis is also annoyed by the …More