Abstract
During the 1970s, the Argentinian republic experienced a period of political violence which continued up to the establishment of the constitutional government on 10 December 1983.1
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NOTES
The principal source of this chapter is my book Iglesia y Dictadura — El papel de la Iglesia a la luz de sus relaciones con el régimen milita? (Buenos Aires: Ediciones del Pensamiento Nacional, 1986) 283 pages. There is an English translation of a revised edition: Witness to the Truth — The Complicity of Church and Dictatorship in Argentin? (New York: Orbis, 1988).
See Richard Gillespie: Soldiers of Perón — Argentin?’s Montonero? (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1982) 310 pages.
See Daniel Frontalini and Cristina Caiati: El mito de la guerra suci? (Buenos Aires: Centro de Estudios Legales y Sociales (CELS), 1984) 112 pages.
The Third General Conference of the Latin American Episcopate, meeting in Puebla, Mexico in January 1979, in the presence of John Paul II, issued a document which analyses in various places the objectives and contents of the doctrine or ideology of national security, its anti-Christian nature and the claim of military regimes of using it as a defence of so-called western and Christian civilisation. I quote some of those paragraphs.
Lieutenant General Jorge Rafael Videla was sentenced in 1985 to life imprisonment by the Cámara Federal de Apelaciones de la Capital Federal (the Federal Chamber of Appeal of the Federal Capital), for his part in the crimes committed during the Military Dictatorship. The sentence was upheld by the Corte Suprema de Justicia de la NaciGn (the Supreme Court of Justice of the Nation).
Augusto Conte MacDonnell, Noemi Labrune and Emilio F. Mignone: El secuestro como método de detenció? (Buenos Aires: Centro de Estudios Legales y Sociales (1982) p. 6, cf. Emilio Fermin Mignone for CELS: ‘Les déclarations abusives de disparitions, instrument d’une politique’, in Le refus de?’oublie — La politique de disparition forcée de personnes, Colloque de Paris, janvier, fevrier 198? (Paris: Berger-Levrault, 1982) pp. 152–83.
The Comisión Nacional sobre la Desaparición de Personas (the National Commission on the Disappearance of People) was set up by the president of the Argentinian republic, Raúl Alfonsín, on 15 December 1983. It was presided over by the writer, Ernesto Sábato. Its principal objective was to obtain clarification on the disappearances which occurred during the military dictatorship of 1976–83. It produced a report entitled Nunca Más [Never Again] — Informe de la Comisión Nacional sobre Desaparición de Persona? (Buenos Aires: Editorial Universitaria de Buenos Aires [EUDEBA] 1984) 490 pages with an addendum. There are translations in English (London: Faber & Faber 1986, 463 pages), French, Italian, Portuguese and German. ‘From the enormous documentation gathered’, Sábato says in the prologue, ‘it is inferred that human rights were violated institutionally and by the State through repression by the Armed Forces’ (p. 8). 8. Quoted in Clarí?, Buenos Aires, 24 de octubre de 1975.
Quoted in The Time?, London, 4 January 1978.
Horacio Verbitsky: La última batalla de la tercera guerra mundia? (Buenos Aires: Editorial Legasa, 1984) p.15.
Luke 16:13.
For a study on the theological background of this ecclesiastical position, see: Ruben Dri: Teologia y Dominació? (Buenos Aires: Colección TeolGgica y Politica, Roblanco SRL, 1987) 436 pages.
John Paul II’s homily on inaugurating the work of the Third General Conference of the Latin American Episcopate, 28 January 1979. In Mensajes de Juan Pablo II en America Latin? (Ediciones Paulinas, 1979) p. 54.
Documentos del Episcopado Argentino — Colección completa del magisterio postconciliar de la Conferencia Episcopal Argentina — Documentos del Episcopado Argentin? (1965–1981) (Buenos Aires: Editorial Claretiana, 1982) 479 pages.
Acts 4:19.
Mark 15:34; Matthew 27:46.
Clari?, Buenos Aires, 6 de enero de 1986.
Caras y Careta?, Buenos Aires, agosto de 1984.
Concilio Vaticano II: Constitució? ‘Gaudium et Spe?’ sobre la Iglesia en el mund? (Madrid: Biblioteca de Autores Cristianos 1968) no. 76 p.120.
La Razón, Buenos Aires, 12 de junio de 1976?
Diario del Juici?, Buenos Aires, 1985.
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© 1990 Dermot Keogh
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Mignone, E. (1990). The Catholic Church, Human Rights and the ‘Dirty War’ in Argentina. In: Keogh, D. (eds) Church and Politics in Latin America. Latin American Studies Series. Palgrave Macmillan, London. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-349-09661-9_19
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