Two compelling reasons prompted the Argentine Episcopal Conference (CEA)to carry out an in-depth investigation on the performance of the Catholic Church during the ’60s and ’70s and the dictatorship: know the truth and ask God for forgiveness, the victims and the Argentines “for not having lived up to the circumstances.” With this objective, the CEA opened its archives to allow an extensive survey of the period from 1966 to 1983. In 2017, its president, Monsignor Oscar Ojea; requested the dean of the Faculty of Theology of the UCA, Father Carlos Galli, to start this project. himself with the Fathers Juan Guillermo Durán, Luis Oscar Liberti and Federico Tavelli They were in charge of coordinating the 30 researchers who carried out, based on the contribution of different disciplines, a work that gave an account of the activities of the Church throughout the country, during that period.
Dad’s inspirationa was fundamental in the development of the task. “Today it is easy to fall into the temptation of turning the page -said Francis in the encyclical “Fratelli Tutti”- No, by God. You never advance without memory”.
The result of this fundamental research has been published in two volumes entitled “The truth will make them free. The Catholic Church in the spiral of violence in Argentina 1966-1983” and “The truth will set you free. The Argentine Episcopal Conference and the Holy See against State terrorism 1976-1983” (Planet). A third volume is being prepared at this very moment..
To learn more about the process of this investigation and its results, NOTICIAS consulted the editors and authors who worked on the publication. One of them, the presbyter doctor Fabrizio Forcatwas in charge of answering our questions.
NEWS: You mention in the introduction to the work that very important files were opened exceptionally to carry out the investigation. Why did this exception occur?
Forcat: I understand that at the local level the exception is a sign of the interest and the decision that the bishops agreed upon when requesting this investigation from the Faculty of Theology. There can be no serious critical history research without unrestricted access to sources and documents. Secrecy conspires against historical truth. The work has been very rich in that sense. It is worth clarifying that the project’s Board of Directors signed a protocol with the CEA by which researchers were authorized to access the files for the work of “this investigation.” There are established protocols for access to the archives of the Holy See and the Historical Archive of the Secretariat of State because they are not freely accessible archives. The permission that – at the request of Pope Francis – was granted to us for research on the archives of the Holy See (including the Nunciature in Argentina) was “totally exceptional”. Normally the Church opens its archives at the age of seventy. Here they have spent much less than that. As is public knowledge, the president of the CEA, Oscar Ojea, delivered the documentation used to Judge Lijo. We also know that the CEA plans to open its archives with the corresponding protocols from 1982 onwards in April or May next (they have taken the 40-year option). The decision was approved by the Standing Commission of the Episcopal Conference in December 2022.
NEWS: The work focuses on a historical moment that earned a lot of criticism of the Church. Why did the Episcopal Conference want to return to this period?
Forcat: I understand that it was about an outstanding debt with the Argentine people. The pain of the victims of the social tragedy that our society experienced is immense and does not stop bleeding. State terrorism and its crimes against humanity have branded the collective conscience of this generation of bishops. The preface that they offer to the work is clear: “If in the past there were some attitudes of denial on our part in the face of attempts at self-criticism, the absence of a deep examination of ecclesial conscience and the recognition of very deep flaws in our actions, today We have wanted to study the available archives as objectively as possible and receive testimonies that allow Argentine society to have elements that favor an acute reflection on what happened and the recovery of the sense of fraternity among Argentines”. There can be no peace and justice without memory and without truth. Not having lived up to the circumstances and having erred in discerning the situation, is something that time and the struggle of human rights organizations have grown in the same internal criticism of the episcopate. After more than forty years, the emotional and cultural wounds of that tragic period remain open and are still a reason for disunity in society. Those of us who participated in the research often talked about the value of opening our minds and hearts to a lucid, penitent, and hopeful memory. By acknowledging wrongs done or suffered, the penitent memory invites and leads to repentance and penitential reparation. We believe that an academic study of the different actors of the period, arising from access to the main archives of the Church and promoted by the Episcopate, is a step forward that can help us walk the humble and hopeful path that leads to truth and justice. The investigation initiates this pending task and offers it to society as an invitation to a frank and honest dialogue. It is also an act of justice for so many Christians who were victims of terror. Many of them gave with their suffering and with their death a testimony that is not fair to be devoured by oblivion. In the particular case of the episcopate during the period of state terrorism, few were able to grasp the bias they had as a group regarding what was happening, but the final specific distortions were exposed to the view of many. As one of the current bishops whose testimony we publish in the first volume says: “I was not a bishop at that time, but I am a bishop now and this Catholic Church is the same Catholic Church at that time, so I have to take charge. And if I want a Church without a past and without sin, I am not going to find it”.
NEWS: It is possible that ordinary readers approach the work with the idea of two fighting churches in that period. A leadership closer to the military regime and, on the other hand, the priests who worked in the neighborhoods and villas with the people. Did this idea prove true after the investigation, or did the data reveal much less divided and antagonistic action?
Forcat: What you say is part of a certain cultural common sense, but I think that it is more appropriate than thinking of two churches to pay attention to the various modes of incarnation of Christianity in the society of the period. The work analyzes the different ferments that religious meanings and values offer to the management of the political. In this sense, Catholicism is a multiform unity. It has always been like this. It appears more than clear that the vast majority of the bishops trusted the Catholicism of the armed forces to restore peace. A majority of society also had this false expectation in 1976. However, the spiral of violence has crossed Argentine society with great force since 1955 and the ideological rupture in Argentine Catholicism is very notable throughout the 20th century. The chapters that analyze priestly performance testify to very different models of understanding and living the ministry in history. The climate of the time fertilizes the different ideas, actions and passions of priests, religious and lay Christians, in different positions, and often openly opposed. For a complete encounter with the past, it has been essential for us to attend to and interpret the symbolic reality, with its distinctive practices, the ways of interrelation, of living together and of mutually valuing the different actors. The investigation wanted to attend in a special way to the internal dialectics of Catholicism in the period, and to take charge of the conflicts with realism and truth.
NEWS: What unknown data or revelations from those years did you find during the investigation?
Forcat: Many and of all kinds. Difficult to summarize in a short space, you have to read the work. The second volume stands out in this sense for the publication of very significant extracts from the meetings of the Episcopal Conference (both the plenary assemblies and the meetings of the permanent and executive commissions of the CEA). Also the reports of the Apostolic Nuncio, the correspondence with the person in charge of public affairs of the Church in the Holy See, and the secret memoranda that Monsignor Galán prepared after each meeting of the so-called Liaison Commission, which was an informal dialogue channel between bishops and soldiers, offer unprecedented elements for a critical history of the time. There is a lot of information there.
NEWS: How did the fact that Pope Francis is today the head of the Church influence the decision to investigate this period?
Forcat: I understand that a lot. The Church we know today bears the mark of these ten years of Francis’ papacy and this investigation is not unrelated to his insistence on a Church in a state of conversion. In addition, he has been very firm in his decision to bring the truth to light on other sensitive issues such as Vatican finances or the abuse crisis. On this last point, he had no problem admitting several times with shame and regret that the Church did not know how to attend to the pain of the victims. He has shown that he prefers that the truth be known, no matter how harsh it may be, so that from the recognition of errors, progress can be made on a path of conversion. In the encyclical “Fratelli Tutti” he clearly says that wounds cannot be closed with decrees, nor can injustices be covered with the cloak of oblivion. He never advances without memory. It is necessary to seek truth and justice as a way to honor the memory of the victims. This work wants to follow the impulse of the courage that Francisco has shown when it comes to admitting guilt and asking for forgiveness. We trust that it can be a valuable instrument for the Church to face history and, recognizing itself wrong in the attitudes of some of its members, can be ashamed and ask for forgiveness.
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