Argentine Court: Church Complicit in 'Dirty War' Crimes

In a historic ruling, an Argentine court has found that the country’s Catholic Church was complicit in the human rights abuses committed by the military dictatorship that ruled Argentina from 1976 to 1983.

As Argentina's InfoNews reports, the ruling was issued by a four-judge tribunal in the western province of La Rioja, which was presiding over the murder trials of Carlos de Dios Murias and Gabriel Longueville, two priests who had been killed in 1976. Both were active members of the Movement of Priests for the Third World, an association of progressive clergymen. After being detained by officials, their mutilated bodies were found dumped near train tracks in La Rioja.

In addition to sentencing three military officials to life imprisonment for the crime, the tribunal found that the Catholic Church shared responsibility for the murders. The judges ruled that Church hierarchy in the country not only turned a blind eye to the torture, disappearances and extrajudicial killings committed by the military regime, but had in many cases colluded with authorities in order to target progressive priests. According to the tribunal’s decision (available here):

"This was not about isolated events taken out of context, committed by particular individuals. On the contrary, clearly, the murder of Murias and Longueville can be interpreted and understood precisely in the context of a systematic plan for the elimination of political opponents (...) Murias and Longueville were part of a church faction considered to be 'enemies' and 'targets.’”

The judges also criticized the present-day Church for being unwilling to investigate crimes committed by its members under the military regime.


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