Welcome to this website dedicated to the life and work of Blessed Enrique Angelelli, the JOC and JUC chaplain, who became a bishop in 1960 as well as a Council Father at Vatican II.
During the Council, he became a signatory to the Pact of the Catacombs and the Pietralata Message issued following the Masses for the Poor and for Workers organised by Helder Camara with Cardijn on 16-17 November 1965, the eve of the promulgation of Apostolicam Actuositatem, the Decree on Lay Apostolate.
He was eventually martyred along with several companions, French priest Gabriel Longueville, Franciscan Conventual Fr Carlos Murias and lay leader of the Christian Farmers Movement, Wenceslao Pedernera, in 1976.
On 27 April 2019, all four were beatified. Speaking the next day in Rome the next day, Pope Francis said:
“Dear brothers and sisters, yesterday in Rioja, Argentina, Bishop Enrique Angel Angelelli, Franciscan Fr Carlos de Dios Murias, fidei donum priest Fr Gabriel Longueville, and the catechist and family father Wenceslao Pedernera were proclaimed Blessed. These martyrs of the faith were persecuted for the cause of justice and evangelical charity. May their example and their intercession especially support those working for a more just and sympathetic society. One of them was French. He had gone to Argentina as a missionary. The other three were from Argentina.”
The Argentine Diocese of La Rioja is commemorating the 50th anniversary of its martyred bishop, Blessed Enrique Angelelli, who was killed on 5 August 1976, and his companions, Franciscan Carlos Murias, French worker priest Gabriel Longueville and lay catechist Wenceslao Pedernera.
As a young priest, Enrique Angelelli helped found the JOC (YCW) and (JUC) (University YCS) in the Diocese of Cordoba while Fr Longueville was chaplain to the JAC (rural YCW movement) as did Wenceslao Pedernera.
“We commemorate the fiftieth anniversary of the martyrdom of Bishop Enrique Angelelli,” chief celebrant Archbishop Marcelo Colombo said in his homily.
“This commemoration follows the liturgical celebration of the Blessed Martyrs of La Rioja on July 17th, and the commemoration of the martyrdom of Fathers Carlos Murias and Gabriel Longueville, and Wenceslao Pedernera in Chamical and Sañogasta. These were the harsh times when state terrorism cut short their lives, seeking to silence the voice of God and the unstoppable power of His Word. Each of these moments has prepared us for today’s celebration, fifty years after our beloved Bishop Angelelli endured his Way of the Cross until reaching the Pastor site and offering his blood for his people.
“Angelelli’s greatest legacy was the consistency between what he preached and the way he lived” – Roberto Rojo, historian
He continued:
We have come to celebrate a pastor, someone resolutely identified with Christ to the very end, from his first steps in ministry to his final, supreme act. We could not accept any other way to authentically celebrate him than by recalling his words and actions as a pastor. Any reductive view of his being and his actions, regardless of its source; any denial of what happened here, would leave whoever holds it out of touch with reality and would deprive them of seeing the goodness, the nobility, and the generosity of this pastor who, in the name of Christ, knew only how to love until the very end.
In the first reading, the prophet addresses his people. They have lost everything: the land, the temple, and the monarchy. His criticism is directed primarily at the shepherds of Israel—the kings, rulers, and religious leaders who neglected the people. In a previous passage (34:1-10), he accused them of feeding themselves instead of tending the flock. But, moreover, the Lord expresses his desire to go out and find his sheep himself. The initiative is his. He wants to give them rest from all that burdens them and hinders their full potential. In this way, Ezekiel’s words prepare us to discover in Jesus Christ, the Good Shepherd, whom we heard in the Gospel.
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Jesus is not just any shepherd, not an upstart; he is the one his people have been waiting for, the one who answers the anxieties and loneliness of his brothers and sisters. In Jesus, God’s promise to be the Shepherd himself is fulfilled. The adjective “good” goes beyond our everyday usage; in the context of the Gospel, it means “the true one,” “the authentic one,” to emphasize the genuineness of his mission.
This figure of the shepherd, so familiar to the people of Israel, often explains their relationship with their leaders or God’s concern for his people. The contrast between good and bad shepherds also reminds the Israelites of the behavior of so many religious or political leaders who abandon them in their time of need, who do not stand up for them like the Good Shepherd who remains to the end. There is also a clear reference to the belonging and intimacy that bind the legitimate shepherd to his sheep: they recognize his voice as the one that gathers and leads them. This familiarity between shepherd and sheep confirms his leadership. Our relationship with Jesus, as his sheep, speaks to us of a profound relationship, of reciprocal belonging that excludes anything that implies deception, abuse, exploitation, or manipulation. The Good Shepherd loves his sheep and lays down his life for them. This is not just any kind of belonging, not just any kind of intimacy. In Jesus’ words, it is founded on the reference to his own relationship with the Father.
This Word, which we embrace today, illuminates our understanding of the life and ministry of Enrique Angelelli, a shepherd after the heart of Christ. Those of us who have toiled in this blessed land of La Rioja know well the profound significance of his figure, the impact of his teachings destined to take root in the daily lives of a people afflicted by neglect and oblivion, and in the profound renewal of his Church inspired by the Second Vatican Council.
In the words of Pope Francis:
“Blessed Martyr Enrique Angelelli, Bishop of La Rioja, was and continues to be a gift from the Lord to the Church in Argentina. A man of great freedom and great love for every person: friend or adversary, brother or enemy. A truly Catholic bishop, because he is united to the universal Church in listening to and being of filial obedience to the Pope and in his tenacious commitment to implementing in his diocese the indications and impulses of the Second Vatican Ecumenical Council (…)
At the same time, despite the dangers and the growing hostility of his adversaries, despite the fears and threats, he fulfills the mandate to be shepherd of the Church’s flock. A flock that, however, is not destined to be confined to the sacristy but to spread the love of God, received and celebrated in the sacraments, in the ordinary life of work, family, associations, and solidarity. I do not believe that Angelelli was a hero, but a true martyr (and the Church has recognized this). The martyr bears witness that, If the heart and mind are in God, attitudes always arise from Him: sincere love for everyone and the rejection of all exploitation and shortcuts for self-interest or for a comfortable life, if the rights and lives of the weakest, the marginalized, those who—let’s say today—are on the periphery are at stake.” (Francis, Prologue to the book Listening to God and His People)
His own awareness of his responsibility before God and his people led him to carry out his mission in every sphere that required the presence of the Good Shepherd. As the second reading we heard said: “Whoever has the gift of ministry, let them serve. Whoever has the gift of teaching, let them teach. Whoever has the gift of exhortation, let them exhort… Whoever leads, let them do so diligently.” This was evident in his pastoral visits throughout the diocesan territory, in his Sunday homilies broadcast on the radio, in pastoral meetings with priests, lay people, and religious men and women, in personal encounters and dialogues, in his proposals to translate the Church’s social doctrine into Christian participation, cooperation among rural workers, and the service of public office, and in his collegial work within the Argentine Episcopal Conference, where he made the life and needs of his people present and also pointed out paths of fidelity to God’s designs for his Church.
“Monsignor Angelelli and his homilies (…) can also be a source of inspiration and growth in the evangelical discernment of the challenges and situations that each of us is called to experience in the Church and in our professional and family lives. Monsignor Enrique was also a pastor of the simple: he valued popular piety (linked to places, times, and festivals of that land and its people) to encourage the people’s adherence—in unity and solidarity—to Christ and to Mother Church. His preaching was truly popular, directed to all and accessible to all: anchored also in the concrete circumstances of social life to show that the Gospel is not an idea and faith is not a belief. Faith in Christ, in fact, is the acceptance of a relationship that changes us in our hearts, in our minds, and in the way we look at ourselves and others.” (Pope Francis, Prologue )
What does Enrique Angelelli, a pastor from the interior of the country, have to say to us today? He would surely invite us Christians to take up Jesus’s challenge to be the salt of the earth and the light of the world, capable of challenging, through our lives and our words, all that offends human dignity, ignores the suffering of the poor, and renders invisible the most dramatic situations in life. Far from any rhetoric that observes reality from afar, he would ask us to commit to transforming society into a more just and fraternal space. He would confront the attempt to reduce people to an algorithm of consumption and submission to the dictates of powerful economic interests. He would question the grand, empty rhetoric of any political persuasion that excludes the individual and their rights. In the words of Pope Leo XIV:
“It is real people who matter, each and every one of them and their families. Social movements, grand political pronouncements in favor of the people, and communitarian ideologies are useless if they are not directed toward the advancement of people—men and women—with their inalienable rights. Likewise, it is not enough to extol individual liberty or private initiative if one then accepts that a multitude of people continue to live without decent work, without protection, and without access to fundamental goods.” (Pope Leo , Magnifica Humanitas, no. 58)
As I have shared with you on other occasions, there have never been easy times for the Church; the trial of martyrdom has always been a testament to the disciples’ fidelity to remain in love and the challenge of persevering in following the teachings of Jesus, to remain in the Father, as the Lord himself had shown us. Bishop Angelelli, with his final sacrifice, invites us to a great love that gives life, faithful to the Lord and to our brothers and sisters. Together with Carlos, Gabriel, and Wenceslao, they continue to illuminate our ecclesial life in the name of Christ and encourage our trusting discipleship of the One who loved us first.
May Jesus the Good Shepherd continue to inspire the life of the Church in La Rioja and in Argentina, and may Saint Nicholas and the blessed martyrs of La Rioja intercede for us.
Blessed Wenceslao Pedernera was a lay catechist and rural Catholic Action leader, who was also martyred two weeks before Bishop Angelelli
Franciscan Carlos Murias and French priest Gabriel Longueville were also martyred.SOURCE
