Information service of the Pontifical Mission Societies since 1927
La Rioja (Agenzia Fides) - The murder of Mgr. Enrique Angelelli, Bishop of La Rioja in 1976, was recalled on August 4 with a Mass in the Diocese of La Rioja (north-west of Argentina), with a huge number of comments on social networks and newspaper articles.
The murder of Angelelli was masked as an accident by the authorities of the time, but further investigation and a trial in 2014 resulted in the responsibility of General Luciano Benjamin Menendez and military Luis Fernando Estrella, who were sentenced to lifetime imprisonment. Mgr. Angelelli was one of the few priests who opposed to the military dictatorship.
The murder of the Bishop of La Rioja coincided with one of the darkest episodes of the last dictatorship in Argentina (1976-1983): the kidnapping and execution of the French priest Gabriel Longueville and the Argentine Carlos de Dios Murias.
Mgr. Angelelli had publicly denounced such crimes and was travelling to Buenos Aires with the documentation on the case when his vehicle was intercepted. The Bishop was shot to death with a rifle butt and his car was overturned, simulating an accident.
In 2009 the National Congress of Argentina paid tribute to the Bishop for his fight in defense of the poor and the opposition to dictatorship.
Mgr. Angelelli was born in Cordoba on July 17, 1923, was ordained a priest in Italy and in 1961 by decision of Pope John XXIII, was appointed Auxiliary Bishop of Cordoba. In 1968 he was appointed Bishop of La Rioja by Pope Paul VI, where he preached the principles taught by the Second Vatican Council. (CE) (Agenzia Fides 05/08/2015)
