The first two volumes of a groundbreaking research project presented at the Vatican June 16 reveal in detail for the first time how Argentina’s Catholic Church and the Vatican responded to the violence in Argentina between 1966 and 1983, and particularly during the military dictatorship (1976-83).
Based on research conducted with unprecedented access to Vatican archives and the archives of the Argentine bishops’ conference, the project reveals that the Argentine bishops knew for certain as early as 1979 that it was the military junta’s official policy to “disappear” people in order to quash opposition. The Vatican urged the bishops’ conference to intervene using all possible means, but the bishops chose to keep their interventions private “for fear of weakening [the military government] and for fear of communism.”
La Verdad Los Hará Libres (The Truth Will Set You Free) is the Spanish title of all three volumes of this original interdisciplinary, five-year research project involving no less than 20 researchers. The focus in each volume is disclosed in the subtitles: Volume 1: “The Catholic Church in the spiral of violence in Argentina 1966-1983”; and Volume 2: “The Argentine Bishops Conference and the Holy See faced with state terrorism, 1976-1983.” Volume 3 will be published later this year.
This pioneering work was presented in the Marconi Hall of the Vatican’s Dicastery for Communications by a panel of three researchers led by the well-known Argentine priest-theologian the Rev. Carlos Galli, dean of the Faculty of Theology of the Universidad Católica Argentina (U.C.A.) in Buenos Aires, which has been entrusted with the research project. He was flanked by another U.C.A. professor, Federico Tavelli, who also teaches at Albert Ludwig University of Freiburg in Germany, and by Gianni La Bella, an Italian professor of history at Modena University.
The project reveals that the Argentine bishops knew for certain as early as 1979 that it was the military junta’s official policy to “disappear” people in order to quash opposition.
At the presentation moderated by Elisabetta Piqué, correspondent of La Nación, the Argentine newspaper, Father Galli told the audience of ambassadors, Vatican officials, journalists and the public that this research “constitutes something new in the historiography of Argentina and of the church. There does not exist such a broad study whose main sources are the [current] archives of the church, together with a good part of the bibliography and many witnesses.”
Pope Francis declassified documents for the project
The initiative for this project came from the Argentine bishops’ conference (C.E.A.) in 2012, under its president, Bishop José Maria Arancedo, when they decided to organize material in the conference’s archives for the period of 1976 to 1983 and to make it available to the victims and the relatives of the victims of the military dictatorship’s brutal repression. The conference also published a pastoral letter in 2012, titled “Faith in Jesus Christ moves us to truth, justice and peace,” in which the bishops committed themselves “to promote a more complete study of these events, to continue the search for the truth, in the certainty that the truth will set us free.”
Pope Francis, who led the Argentine bishops’ conference for two three-year terms (2005-2011), “gave instructions for the digitalization of the archives [of the bishops’ conference]” in his first year as pope, Father Galli said. A protocol was approved in 2016 allowing access to the archival material.
In December 2017, Archbishop Óscar Ojea, the new president of the C.E.A., asked Father Galli to conduct a research project “that would help to reconstruct a historical memory with the aim of contributing to the truth [of what happened].” The faculty was well-suited for this task as it had specialized in the study of the history of the Latin American and Argentine church since the 1960s. Father Galli set up a steering committee in 2018, which included Mr. Tavelli. The committee established a team of 20 researchers. Their task was “to find and tell the historical truth, avoiding ideological or partial narratives or corporative justifications” of what happened over these decades. Their analysis operates at the intersection of history, sociology, political science, philosophy and theology.
Normally the Vatican does not open its archives until many decades—at least 50 years—after the events, but in 2020 Pope Francis personally authorized the declassification of the documentation for the period 1976 to 1983.
Father Galli, who is also a member of the International Theological Commission and a member of the theological commission of the synod, explained that what makes this research original, indeed historic, is that his research team was given access “in an exceptional way” to both the unpublished documentation of the archives of the Argentine Bishops’ Conference and of the Vatican Secretariat of State, including those of the Council for the Public Affairs of the Church and of the apostolic nunciature in Argentina. The result of this exceptional access is evident especially in Volume 2. He noted that normally the Vatican does not open its archives until many decades—at least 50 years—after the events, but his team was given access to the archives of the decades in question because in 2020 Pope Francis personally authorized the declassification of documentation for the period 1976 to 1983. By authorizing this, Father Galli said, “Francis was prophetic.”
Bishops knew as early as 1979 about ‘the disappeared’
The crucial importance of this access was evident in Professor Tavelli’s presentation in which he focused on the question of “the disappeared” (los desaparecidos) in Argentina. He said the research team discovered in the C.E.A. archives that as early as June 7, 1979, at a meeting in the Casa Rosada (the residence of the president) in Buenos Aires, four high commanders of the Armed Forces admitted to members of the liaison committee (set up by the bishops’ conference to liaise in a confidential way with the military junta) that “the disappearance of persons formed part of the plan of the government to combat subversion.”
Professor Tavelli said the C.E.A. passed on this important information to the nunciature, where Monsignor Claudio Maria Celli was temporarily in charge in the absence of the nuncio, Archbishop Pio Laghi. The monsignor transmitted the information to Cardinal Agostino Casaroli, secretary of state, and the Vatican archives revealed that he was “shocked” that “the disappearance of persons was state policy of the Argentine dictatorship,” and that Pope Paul VI was subsequently informed about this.
The Vatican urged the bishops’ conference to intervene using all possible means, but the bishops chose to keep their interventions private “for fear of weakening [the military government] and for fear of communism.”
The Vatican archives revealed that Cardinal Casaroli, with the approval of the pope, sent a strong letter to Archbishop Laghi, the nuncio in Buenos Aires, to tell Cardinal Raúl Francisco Primatesta, president of the C.E.A., that the Argentine bishops “cannot accept the reasons and justification for this; they have the duty to speak and to insist, ‘appropriately and inappropriately,’ with the means at their disposal.” Casaroli also asked the bishops “to make known to the highest authority of the government the grave concern of the Holy See in this most important question of justice and humanity.”
The C.E.A. archives reveal that Cardinal Primatesta opted instead for a confidential approach to the junta through the liaison committee “for fear of weakening [the military government] and for fear of communism.”
The bishops’ dilemma: To denounce publicly or act behind the scenes
Professor Galli elaborated on this in an interview with Avvenire, the Italian Catholic daily, before the conference. He said, “On the eve of the [March 1976] coup, the bishops hoped the military could put order in the rampant chaos. Quite soon, however, they had to come to terms with ever more ferocious repression. But already in May 1976 they became aware of forced disappearances even though they thought these were only isolated cases.” Therefore, “to open a channel of communication with the military junta government they created a ‘liaison committee’ through which they interceded for thousands of prisoners and disappeared persons: 3,115, on the base of the names contained in the lists compiled by the bishops’ conference (C.E.A.) and the nunciature. The military always glossed over the [requests].”
Professor Galli said that between the end of 1976 and 1977 it was already clear that “disappearance” was a systematic policy. “From this came the [bishops’] dilemma: to publicly denounce or to intercede behind the scenes. In the end, the C.E.A.—as a collegial body; individual bishops spoke openly—opted for the second strategy. And it was wrong, although it saved many lives,” Professor Galli said. “There were not the prophetic words or gestures that the circumstances would have required. Above all, the confidential negotiations gave less results than had been expected because of the hardness of the generals.”
Professor Galli explained that the bishops preferred the confidential way “because they feared that if the military government fell, an even more radical junta would have come [to power], and because they hoped to get results behind the scenes. But it was not so. The action of the C.E.A. [as a body] resulted as weak, ambiguous, not very prophetic, but, however, not complicit.”
Rev. Carlos Galli: "The action of the C.E.A. [as a body] resulted as weak, ambiguous, not very prophetic, but, however, not complicit.”
Professor Tavelli, in his presentation, said that “with the support of the Vatican,” Archbishop Laghi and the nunciature in Buenos Aires “became one of the points of reference for channeling efforts in favor of the disappeared and the prisoners” of the military dictatorship. The archbishop received the “Madri di Plaza de Mayo,” the mothers of the disappeared persons, in 1977, while the C.E.A. only received them formally in 1983, when democracy was restored. Laghi also made monthly approaches to the Ministry of the Interior on behalf of 3,115 different cases of the disappeared, and also of many cases of prisoners detained without trial. He met General Jorge Videla, commander in chief of the army and de-facto president of the country, on a number of occasions, and on Jan. 9, 1980, the general told him that between 5,000 and 6,000 people had been disappeared.
Truth and reconciliation
In doing this important research, Professor Galli said, “We tried to listen to the voice of the archives with critical attention to both the published and unpublished sources” and “wrote up this research in a way that would be legible also for readers who are not specialists.” It may also serve as an instrument for teachers of Argentine history at different levels in the educational system. He expressed the hope that the three volumes would serve as a resource for other research on this period in the history of the church and of Argentina.
At the Vatican presentation, the French nun Genevieve Jeanninggros of the Little Sisters of Charles de Foucauld, whose aunt, Sister Léonie Duquet, disappeared during the military dictatorship, along with another French sister, both of whom were later found dead, stood up. She thanked Professor Galli and his research team for the work they have done and said, “Without the truth, it is not possible to heal the wounds and bring reconciliation.”
“Without the truth, it is not possible to heal the wounds and bring reconciliation.”
In the preface to these volumes, Archbishop Ojea, president of the C.E.A., wrote that this research should be seen in the framework of the bishops’ conference’s goal “to work for the encounter and fraternity of the Argentine people which will not be realized without knowing the historical truth and without promoting authentic justice.” He added, “Without pretending to judge persons, which exceeds our competence, we wish to know the historical truth and to ask pardon of God, of the Argentine community and of the victims of the violence, as pastors of our pilgrim church in Argentina.”
Professor Gianni La Bella, in his presentation, highlighted the fact that this original and important research has opened “a new chapter in the history of the Catholic Church in Argentina.” He said it also laid to rest the “leggenda nera” that has circulated for many years about Archbishop Laghi’s alleged complicity with the military junta.
Recalling that some 85 percent of the population of Latin America was under military rule at some stage in the second half of the 20th century, Professor La Bella concluded, “it would be good” if other Catholic churches in Latin America, such as in Brazil, Chile, Paraguay, were to follow the example of the Argentine church and conduct similar research in their homelands.
(Editor’s note: Elisabetta Piqué, who moderated the panel, is married to Gerard O’Connell, who authored this piece.)
