Beatification of four modern
martyrs to the faith in Argentina
 |
| Argentine Bishop Enrique Angetelli, assassinated 4 August 1976 |
The Prefect of the Congregation for the Causes of Saints,
Cardinal Angelo Becciu, presides over the beatification in Argentina of Bishop
Enrique Angelelli, Fr Carlos Murias, Fr Gabriel Longueville, and lay catechist
Wenceslao Pedernera. All were assassinated in 1976 during Argentina’s “dirty
war”.
By Seàn-Patrick Lovett
The first person to call them “martyrs” was the then
Archbishop of Buenos Aires, Jorge Bergoglio, when he celebrated a memorial Mass
for them in the Cathedral of La Rioja. Bishop Angelelli “shed his blood” for
preaching the Gospel, said the future Pope Francis in his homily, and “the
blood of the martyrs is the seed of the Church”.
The meaning of martyrdom
On Saturday morning, Cardinal Angelo Becciu, returned to the
meaning of martyrdom when he celebrated their Beatification Mass in La Rioja
City Park. “Their witness frustrates the claim to live selfishly or to build a
model of society that is closed and without reference to moral and spiritual
values”, he said. “The Martyrs exhort us…to be heralds of peace, agents of
justice, and witnesses of solidarity”.
Who are these modern martyrs?
Bishop Enrique Angelelli was the son of Italian immigrants.
His pastoral work, first in Córdoba and later in La Rioja, always focused on
the poor and the oppressed.
This was Argentina in the mid-1970’s, the start of what came
to be known as the “dirty war”, when right-wing death squads kidnapped,
tortured and assassinated anyone suspected of being a political or ideological
threat. 30,000 people disappeared, mostly students, trade unionists,
journalists, artists, and sometimes priests.
Conventual Franciscan, Fr Carlos de Dios Murias, and French
missionary, Fr Gabriel Longueville, worked together in the same rural parish,
championing issues of social justice. In July 1976, they were tortured to death
and their bodies left mutilated. A week later, a lay catechist, Wenceslao
Pedernera, was shot to death in front of his wife and three daughters.
“It’s my turn next”
Bishop Angelelli understood he was on a death squad list and
would often say: “It’s my turn next”. On 4 August 1976, he was driving back
home after celebrating Mass for the two murdered priests, when his truck was
overturned and he was murdered at the side of the road. In 2014 an Argentine
Court confirmed that his assassination was a “premeditated act” and the result
of “State-sponsored terrorism”.
In his homily at the Beatification Mass, Cardinal Becciu
added that all four men were killed “because of their active efforts to promote
Christian justice”. At the time of their murder, he continued, civil
authorities did all they could to obstruct “commitment to social justice and to
promoting the dignity of the human person”.
Models of Christian life
The Cardinal called these four Blesseds “models of Christian
life”. The example of Bishop Angelelli, he said, “teaches today's pastors to
exercise their ministry with burning charity, remaining strong in faith”. The
example of the two priests, he added, “exhorts today's priests not to
compromise, to remain faithful at all costs”. The father of the family, he
concluded, “teaches the laity to distinguish themselves by the transparency of
their faith, letting themselves be guided by it”.
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