On April 27, 2019, Bergoglio “beatified” the so-called “Martyrs of La Rioja”. They were: Enrique Ángel Angelelli (1923-1976, bishop of La Rioja), Carlos de Dios Murias OFMConv (1945-1976, Franciscan priest), Gabriel Longueville (1931-1976, French priest) and Wenceslao Pedernera (1936-1976, layman, activist of the Rural Movement of the Catholic Action). They all lived during the military dictatorship in Argentina, which lasted until 1983.
The two priests were taken by unknown individuals to an airbase, tortured and shot. Pedernera was shot in his house by soldiers.
Unlike the other three indivduals, Bishop Angelelli died in a car crash. It is claimed that the crash was caused on purpose by the government, and that he died a martyr’s death. However, there is no sound evidence that the accident was in fact a murder. The only eyewitness claimed that it was an accident. In fact, his successor as bishop of La Rioja, Bernardo Witte, was of the opinion that it was just an accident, as I will show below.
This article is largely based on an article written by the former judge Silvia E. Marcotullio.
The life of Bishop Angelelli
Angelelli, who was nicknamed “Satanelli” in his diocese, was born in 1923. He was a strong leftist, and supported the Peronist, Communist terrorist group known as the Montoneros.
He was ordained a priest in 1949. In 1952, he became a consultant to the Cordóba branch of the Catholic Working Youth (JOC). He was named auxiliary bishop of Cordóba in 1961 and became the bishop of La Rioja in 1969.
The Movement of Priests for the Third World (“tercermundistas”) was a left-wing priest movement in Argentina. In a meeting of priests of the diocese in 1971 with Angelelli, it was decided that their thought and action would become the official position of the diocese. Priests who disagreed with this ideology were called traitors. The meeting called for the removal of their faculties and for the transfer of monks and nuns to other dioceses. It was decided that priests and religious sympathizing with this movement should be admitted rapidly to replace them.
Angelelli in front of the banner of the terrorist group. The caption reads: “The bishop of La Rioja, Monsignor Angelelli, blessed the hall and praised the efforts made by the Peronist comrades.” Fair use, here.
The accident
Angelelli was travelling on August 4, 1976, in a Fiat 125 driven by his vicar, Arturo Pinto, on National Route 38. They were on their way from the village El Chamical to La Rioja, when they suffered an accident. The bishop died, and Pinto was severely injured.
The two eyewitnesses
There are two people who witnessed the accident: Pinto and a man named Raúl Alberto Nacuzi.
Pinto claimed that he had amnesia, but later changed his story. He then claimed not to remember anything except that he was chased by a white car.
Nacuzi made the following statements: “‘That he was perched on a pole of the high voltage line that connects the town of Patquía with Chamical, repairing it. That approximately at kilometer 1057 of the national route 38, the car (belonging to the priests) deviates from the road to the right without slowing down, traveling more than one hundred meters with the two right wheels on the shoulder, moving away from the center of the road, until at a certain moment the driver, in a sudden maneuver, as if he woke up, tries to return to the center of the road, when he hears a blowout of the tire, sees a turn to the left, opening of the right door, expulsion of a body dressed in black and subsequent rollover to the opposite shoulder, where the vehicle is left on its side in the opposite direction to the one it was coming from’. ‘That the person accompanying the driver is the one left lying on the ground. The one driving remains in the vehicle until the vehicle finishes its journey’. ‘That at the moment there is no other vehicle on the road nor circulating on the same’. ‘That in August 1986 in the bishopric and by indication of the Bishop he told the same to Judge Morales and was waiting to be summoned to the court to ratify what he had said, which never happened.’ ‘That after the interview he received offers of money not to say what he knew and threats if he spoke.’ ‘That on August 18 he received the last call in which he was offered 50,000 dollars’. ‘That the present statement is made out of his own free will and in the fear that an attempt may be made to prevent him from testifying before the judge investigating the case’.”
This eyewitness saw no other cars, while the car driver, who might have been held responsible for the accident, claimed to have remembered a white car, years after claiming he had amnesia.
National Route 38 in Córdoba Province, Argentina. Photo by Daniel P. Gauer, CC-BY on Flickr, here
Angelelli’s successor: It was an accident!
The next bishop of La Rioja was Bernhard (Bernardo) Witte (bishop of La Rioja 1977-1992, transferred to Concepción in 1992, died 2015). He stated in the La Nación newspaper in 1988: “We are surprised that the mysterious death of Monsignor Angelelli, was ruled as murder without having sufficient evidence.”
When he retired in 2001, he wrote a letter to the faithful in which he stated: “In the course of time I managed to clarify the drama of the tragic death of Monsignor Enrique Angelelli, specifying that the forces of evil, who murdered the priests Carlos and Gabriel and the layman Wenceslao Pedernera, also wanted to kill the bishop. But his death was the result of a traffic accident. It is to be hoped that the witness, former priest Arturo Pinto, will recover the memory of that tragedy.”
The court case of 1990
On April 20, 1990, the Cordoba Court of Appeals (Cámara de Apelaciones de Córdoba) declared: “Numerous measures were taken in order to clarify the fact….. Notwithstanding everything that has been done, it is impossible to be sure that the fact was the result of a malicious act. It is proven that the death was caused by an accident, but at this stage of the investigation, which is considered to be exhausted, there are not enough elements to affirm that the accident was provoked.”
So, the court declared that there was no evidence of murder.
The new court case in 2014
In 2014, the process has been reopened, without any new evidence coming to light. A court condemned two people to life imprisonment for the murder of Angelelli. This court case claimed that “[…] a light-colored vehicle – presumably a Peugeot 404 model – approached it [the car of Angelelli] at high speed, driven by persons who have not been identified to date, which, driving in the same direction, overtook the car on its left, maneuvering it intentionally abruptly to the right, at which point an explosion happened, the car leaving the asphalt and entering the shoulder in the form of a semicircle, and then re-entering the road, where it overturned, resulting in the death of Mons. Angelelli and injuries to Arturo Pinto […]”
Keep in mind: the only eyewitness who didn’t have amnesia said that there was no other car! Marcotullio points out that the other witnesses, who came to the crash site (two tractor drivers carrying wood, Primitivo Reynoso and Aber Fabio Luna, as well as a local car driver, Carlos A. Argola) didn’t see any sign of another car, either. The only white car that was there was the car of the that of the above mentioned Argola, who informed the authorities about the accident.
Also, the court never determined who drove the elusive “white car”.
Even if it was murder, it definitely wasn’t martyrdom
The Catholic Church has stringent criteria for declaring someone a martyr. A martyr is a Christian who is killed for his faith. The murderer of the martyr kills him out of hatred for the faith (“odio fidei”).
If Angelelli was killed, then for his socialist political views, definitely not for his Catholic faith or anything directly related to it. In fact, bishop Angelo Becciu, who was “prefect” of the Congregation for the Causes of Saints at the time, admitted as much in an interview: “He took up the defense of these poor by creating trade union associations and cooperatives. […] He was a victim of those who did not want to be disturbed in their positions of privilege and rule. He wanted to make the voice of the exploited heard and defend their dignity as persons.” Even if someone does something admirable and is killed for it, it is not martyrdom.
The well-known Argentinian Catholic blogger Wanderer put it like this: “I believe that Angelelli had a reputation of sanctity only among the militants of left-wing parties.”
Famatina in the province of La Rioja, Argentina in 2012. CC-BY-NC 2.0 from Flickr by Rogério Tomaz Jr. here.