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ARGENTINA-ANGELELLI Aug-7-2006 (470 words) xxxi
Argentine church remembers bishop killed during dictatorship
By Jude Webber
Catholic News Service
BUENOS AIRES, Argentina (CNS) -- Buenos Aires Cardinal Jorge Bergoglio paid an unprecedented tribute to an outspoken bishop on the 30th anniversary of his death in a car accident that the government now admits was murder.
Cardinal Bergoglio celebrated Mass and prayed at the tomb of Bishop Enrique Angelelli of La Rioja in that city's cathedral Aug. 4, which was decreed by President Nestor Kirchner as a day of national mourning.
"He spilled his blood to preach the Gospel," said Cardinal Bergoglio. "On the day of (Bishop) Angelelli's death on Aug. 4, 1976, someone was very happy because they believed they had triumphed. They failed."
Earlier, at a separate government tribute, Kirchner said he accepted that the bishop had been murdered and that the judiciary had been slow to act.
Coincidentally on the anniversary of Bishop Angelelli's death, an Argentine court convicted a police officer for human rights abuses during Argentina's 1976-1983 dictatorship. This was the first conviction since laws guaranteeing immunity were repealed last year.
Cardinal Bergoglio recalled visiting La Rioja, in northwestern Argentina bordering Chile, during the 1970s while Bishop Angelelli was still alive and finding "an entire church that was persecuted, its people and its pastor."
Bishop Angelelli, who worked closely with workers and peasant movements, believed in keeping "one eye on the Gospel and the other on the people."
He made enemies inside and outside the church with outspoken views that were considered too liberal by some.
Arturo Pinto, a former priest who survived the incident in which Bishop Angelelli died, told Argentina's Clarin newspaper that the bishop's church "was a different church, one fighting openly for the interests of the poor. (Bishop) Angelelli is a martyr of the church; I'm convinced about that. He knew what he was up against, and he continued with his message."
Bishop Angelelli died after his vehicle overturned on a road now renamed "The Pastor" in his honor. Bishop Miguel Esteban Hesayne, retired bishop of Viedma, Argentina, and a confidant of Bishop Angelelli's, told Clarin that court papers he received in 1983 recorded that the vehicle had one flat tire and its inner tube had a 5-inch slash in it that was not caused by losing control of the vehicle.
"I never believed that what happened to us was an accident," said Pinto. "(Bishop) Angelelli was killed. He is a martyr of a church that in the last 30 years has not lifted a finger over the violent death of one of its own.
"There was an intention not to investigate," he added.
Jorge Oesterheld, spokesman for the Argentine bishops' conference, told reporters the church was now questioning the official version of the accident and wanted the full details.
"We're probably getting there late," he said, "but we're getting there."
END
Copyright (c) 2006 Catholic News Service/USCCB. All rights reserved.
This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or otherwise distributed.
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