Paul KeenanConvictions secured in historic murder case
Pope Francis played an evidential role in the case of a murdered Argentine bishop which secured convictions against two former junta-era military officers, it has been revealed.
On July 5, after many years of failed legal bids, justice was served for the late Bishop Enrique Angelelli when a court in La Rioja sentenced both former General Luciano Benjamin Menendez, 86, and former Vice-Commodore Luis Fernando Estrella, 82, to life in prison for their roles in his murder.
Bishop Angelelli died in the earliest days of Argentina’s ‘Dirty War’ when he was identified by the military junta as left leaning, making him a target. On August 4, 1976, the bishop was the passenger in a vehicle which crashed on the road from La Rioja. Declared an accident by the authorities, the priest at the wheel of the car at the time of the crash insisted that two other vehicles had pursued and forced the crash. Based on this claim, the case was finally reopened in 2010, resulting in last weekend’s verdict.
Now it has emerged that Pope Francis made two significant documents available to the La Rioja court during the trial. One was a letter to the then nuncio to Argentina from the murdered bishop just a month before his death stating his belief that he was being targeted by the junta; the other document was Bishop Angelelli’s findings in the case of two priests he believed had been murdered by the junta.
During his time ministering in Argentina, the future Pope Francis knew Bishop Angelelli and reportedly worked at the bishop’s request to shelter three seminarians from La Rioja whom he believed were being targeted by junta assassins. Just before the bishop’s murder, the future Pontiff arranged for the three priests to reach safety.
