AMERICA/ARGENTINA - On April 27, 2019 the beatification of Mgr. Angelelli, two priests and a layman in La Rioja

Wednesday, 24 October 2018 martyrs   bishops   priests   laity   social situation   politics  

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La Rioja (Agenzia Fides) - The beatification ceremony of Monsignor Enrique Angelelli, of priests Carlos Murias and Gabriel Longueville and of the layman Wenceslao Pedernera, killed during the dictatorship, in the summer of 1976 (see Fides 26/10/2015: 29/07/2016; 2/8/2016; 4/8/2017; 9/6 / 2018) will be celebrated in the Argentinean diocese where he was Bishop, La Rioja, on Saturday 27 April 2019.
As announced by the Vatican Secretariat of State to the Bishop emeritus of La Rioja, Monsignor Marcelo Daniel Colombo, current Archbishop of Mendoza, Cardinal Angelo Becciu, Prefect of the Congregation for the Causes of the Saints, on behalf of the Holy Father, will be present at the ceremony.
Mgr. Colombo described the date of the beatification as "providential", as it coincides with the feast of SantoToribio de Mogrovejo, patron of the Latin American Bishops.
According to the news sent to Fides by Aica, Mgr. Colombo expressed the hope that the name of the new Bishop of La Rioja will soon be made known. He will have to lead the path of preparation, which naturally leads to a "greater knowledge of life, message, of the concrete experience of these brothers and sisters who gave their lives for the Kingdom of God". The objective of this preparation, the prelate emphasized, is to become aware that "in the Argentine Church there are figures who gave their best to build the kingdom of God".
Mgr. Enrique Angelelli (1923-1976) died in a car accident on August 4, 1976, shortly after the establishment of the military dictatorship.
After 38 years two senior officers were sentenced to life imprisonment for the murder of the Bishop.
Fr. Carlos Murias, a young conventual Franciscan native of Cordoba, worked in the diocese of La Rioja among the poor and in defense of farmers. On July 18, 1976, a group of men, who presented themselves as policemen, kidnapped him with an excuse. The parish priest of Chamical, Fr. Gabriel Longueville, French fidei donum, who was with him, did not want to leave him alone. Their bodies were found two days later, atrociously tortured before being shot. Wenceslao Pedernera, farmer, organizer of the Movimiento Rural Catolico, was assassinated in his home by four hooded men on 25 July 1976. (SL) (Agenzia Fides, 24/10/2018)


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