The aim of this paper is to analyze interventions by the Argentinean Episcopal Conference (CEA) in disputes between Unions and the national government between the end of the dictatorship (1976-1983) and the 1989 hyperinflationary crisis. It is argued that the bishops sought to consolidate a position of preeminence in the political configuration by mediating between conflicting actors. However, the legitimacy of the CEA in that role was endangered by its closeness to some of the actors - which denied its declared political detachment - and by its oppositional attitude towards the government at a time when it was assumed that its decisions were aimed at reducing the Church's social and political presence.
Argentine Catholic Church; Unionism; government; democracy.