Cosy with the Church

By Santiago Del Carril
Buenos Aires Herald
May 18, 2013

http://www.buenosairesherald.com/article/131294/cosy-with-the-church

After his death, many were quick to point out the that the former dictator Jorge Videla was taking many of his secrets to the grave, but one thing that hasn’t remained a mystery is the relationship that the leader had with the Catholic Church during his reign. From the very beginning of Videla’s rise to power, the dictator had developed a close friendship with the highest ranking leaders.

On the night before the declaration of the March 24, 1976 military coup, General Jorge Videla with Admiral Emilio Massera, had met with leaders of the Church hierarchy in their office and followed it up on the day of the coup d’état, with a long meeting with the military vicariate. When Archbishop Adolfo Tórtolo came out of the meeting he stated “the Church has its own specific mission.. there are circumstances in which it cannot refrain from participating even when it is a matter of problems related to the specific order of the state.”

As can be interpreted from the statements above, Videla’s led junta had a close alliance with the Church where they served as a confidants to the military in that period. Throughout the military dictatorship there were several incidents that highlighted the links between Videla and ecclesiastical authorities. This relationship was first documented in the late Human Rights activist and CELS founder Emilio Mignone’s book Witness to the Truth, which detailed the Catholic Church’s complicity with the military in this era.

It was a relationship where Videla dictated and the Church would basically comply and then follow, with little to no protest.

In 1977, for example, a year after the coup, three bishops gave Videla a memorandum on November 30, to which the dictator took five months to respond: “The government cannot be held responsible for events that subversives bring about in order to discredit the process of national reorganization.”

The Church’s response was stating in April 29, 1978 that the bishops “are continuing their efforts to bring peace to the Argentine family, which has been shaken by many situations of pain and sorrow.” But not a word about the disappeared. This was a pattern that was followed throughout that era.

After the formal protests sent to Videla by the Church officials on behalf of the human rights abuse victims’ families and friends and the meetings held with the dictator in 1977 and April 1978, the Church seemed satisfied with Videla’s response.

Archbishop Juan Carlos Aramburu, who had been Pope Francis superior during that era, was tired of the issue. “I don’t understand how this question of guerrillas and terrorism has come up again; it’s been over for a long time,” the cardinal responded in 1982 when asked a question in an interview over mass graves that were discovered in a cemetery in Grand Bourg, Buenos Aires province.

The Argentine Synod never reported on the answers given by President Videla during their long lunches, a method he used (and which the bishops accepted) to prove that relationships between the two kinds of authorities were cordial. On October 14, 1977, in a public dialogue with Interior Minister, Albano Harguindeguy, Bishop Jaime de Nevares said that the government’s answer was not positive. After these meetings there never was another episcopal document denouncing the atrocities. They only talked of peace, reconciliation, and forgiveness.

Mignone and many other human rights activists after him, such as the late former Deputy Augusto Conte and journalist Horacio Verbitsky believed that Videla never provided any explanation and justified the way he acted by using the threats of guerrillas carrying out terrorists acts that was an attack on the Christian civilization, the possibility of World War III, and the unison of the two different organization’s objectives.

In June 12, 1976, Lieutenant Colonel Pascarelli in a military ceremony reflected best Videla’s thoughts when he stated that the struggle they were participating in “knows no moral limits which is above good and evil and refusing to see it is an offence against God and Fatherland.” Videla and military colleagues believed they were beyond moral bounds, enforcing the church’s will because they had the majority of their support.”

During his tenure, Videla expanded the Church’s economic benefits. In February 25, 1977, Videla signed a law authorizing a 70-percent retirement package for high-ranking Church officials.

When it came to allegedly “insubordinate” members of their order, the bishops had no problem accepting the false explanations given by Videla’s officials over numerous cases even though there was evidence that the government was responsible.

After the dictatorship, when serving a life prison term for the several human rights violations he was guilty of, Videla still refused to asked for forgiveness even though he regularly went to confession.