Argentina’s Dirty War

Recently in Commonweal, the oldest independent lay Catholic journal of opinion in the United States,
(from left) Fr. Alfred Velarde,
M.S. and Fr. Jim Weeks, M.S.it contained an article entitled, “The Catholic Church & Argentina's Dirty War; Victims, Perpetrators, or Witnesses?”, a large portion of which is about our brothers in Argentina. Not surprisingly many members of our La Salette Community were interviewed. The article included the following brief description:

 

“The La Salettes of Córdoba, who focused their pastoral work on the poor and working-class, knew that local intelligence officials had targeted them as potential subversives. On August 3, 1976, police burst through the door of their modest living quarters, ransacked the house, and captured five seminarians and Father James Weeks, a North American priest. (An American nun was released the same day.)

“In short order, the La Salettes were blindfolded, bundled into a car, and taken away, first to Córdoba’s Encausados prison, and later to La Perla prison, one of the Videla regime’s numerous clandestine detention centers. During their imprisonment, they suffered violent interrogations, horrific sanitary conditions, lack of food, and separation from friends, family, and one another.”

 

This is certainly an unimaginable situation: our La Salettes found themselves in this Dirty War. They were very fortunate to able to flee this cruel and unjust persecution.

We invite you to read two of our own articles about our La Salette involvement in Argentina’s Dirty War: “Argentina’s Dissappeared” and “Justice and Peace Encounter”.

Our Argentinian Pope Shares Words of Encouragement

On the 9th of July 1816 Argentina declared independence from its then ruler Spain. To mark this major event in the country’s history, Pope Francis has sent a letter to the President of the Argentinian Episcopal Conference, José María Arancedo, in which he addresses those in authority and the Argentinian people on the occasion of his homeland’s bicentennial celebrations.

Then-Cardinal Jorge M. Bergoglio, S.J., (later to become Pope Francis) celebrating Mass in 2008 in Buenos Aires, Argentina.In the letter the Pope says he desires “that this celebration will make us stronger in the path taken by our ancestors two hundred years ago,” and invites the people of the country “not to sell the Motherland” and to resist “all forms of colonization”.

In particular he draws attention to those who suffer the most in Argentinian society, such as the sick, those living in poverty, prisoners, those who are lonely, those who have no work, victims of trafficking, child victims of abuse and young people who are suffering from the scourge of drugs.

The Holy Father also looks to the elderly and to young Argentinians to chart the path forward for the country saying, “I would like to ask the elderly, who have a good memory of history, to look past this throwaway culture that has been forced upon us and dare to dream. We need their dreams, they are a fount of inspiration.”

He goes on to say, “I ask young people not to live a retired life in a bureaucratic quietism they are encouraged into by many opportunities that lack excitement and heroism”.

The Pope concludes by saying that, “only if our elderly dare to dream and our young imagine great things, can the Homeland be free. We need elderly people who dream and motivate young people, who in turn run forth armed with the creativity of imagination, inspired by these very dreams.”