El terrorismo de estado y el catolicismo en Argentina: el caso de los Misioneros de La Salette

Abstract

The aim of this paper is, first, to explore the diversity of Catholic reactions facing state terror in Cordoba, Argentina, during the 1970s. Second, I will analyze how different Catholic groups, because of the state terror, redefined their relations with the church’s authority, the state’s power and the modernization process. This analysis will be done by focussing on a case study, the so-called “La Salette case”, the kidnapping of an American priest and five seminarians in 1976. Starting from the victims’ point of view I will try to show how religion played a role during the kidnapping, the reclusion, the torture, and the release process. In this double context – modernization and state terror – this article suggests the existence of four different types of Catholic reactions. One of them supported the totalitarian principles of the government. A second one tried to keep some institutional autonomy, in spite of avoiding defending human lives. A third one tried to preserve lives by using actual institutions. Finally, there was a last one that was looking for a more even relation between the church and the public sphere.