Argentina: Rioja remembers its martyrs

The city of Chamical, in the province and diocese of La Rioja, is celebrating the 42nd anniversary of its martyrs: Bishop Enrique Angelelli, Fathers Carlos Murias and Gabriel Longueville, and layman Wenceslao Pedernera. On 8 June, Pope Francis signed the decree recognizing the martyrdom in hatred of the faith and therefore paves the way for their next beatification.

The celebrations begins tonight, July 17, in El Salvador parish in Chamical, with a cultural evening. On Wednesday, during the morning, there will be pilgrimages to the place of martyrdom. At 9.30am the Crypt of the Martyrs will be blessed in the parish church, and at 12 o'clock Mass will be celebrated.

The diocese of Cruz del Eje, has invited its faithful to take part in these celebrations that will take place in Chamical.

Mgr Enrique Angelelli (1923-1976), Bishop of the diocese of La Rioja, never hid his opposition to the dictatorship. He died in a simulated car accident on August 4, 1976. Two senior officers were sentenced to life imprisonment for his murder 38 years later on 4 July 2014.

Carlos Murias, a young conventual Franciscan, native of Cordoba, worked in the diocese of La Rioja, where Bishop Angelelli, who had ordained him a priest, had sent him among the poor of Chamical. He was looked on with suspicion by the military for his efforts in defense of the peasants.

On July 18, 1976, a group of men, who presented themselves as policemen, took him together with the parish priest of Chamical, Fr Gabriel Longueville, a French Fidei Donum priest. Their bodies were found two days later, atrociously tortured before being shot.

Wenceslao Pedernera, peasant, organizer of the Movimiento Rural Catolico, was murdered in his home by four hooded men on 25 July 1976.