Bishop Angelelli was killed along with three of his co-workers, French fidei donum priest, Gabriel Longueville, religious brother Carlos Muria and Christian Farmers movement lay organiser, Wenceslao Pedernera.
Briefly, here are their stories.
Gabriel Longueville
Gabriel Longueville was born on 18 March, 1931 in Étables ( Ardèche , France ) and died assassinated on 18 July, 1976 in Chamical ( La Rioja , Argentina ), is a French Catholic priest , known to have been a close collaborator of Bishop Enrique Angelelli.
After having studied in Annonay, he was ordained a priest on 29 June, 1957 for the diocese of Viviers . His first years of ministry took place in Annonay where he was a teacher.
In 1969, he was sent to Argentina by Bishop Jean Hermil , as a Fidei donum priest.
Pastor of the parish of El Salvador in El Chamical, he was kidnapped with his curate, Carlos Murias, theJuly 18 , 1976. Their bodies riddled with bullets were found, blindfolded, in a vacant lot renamed Les Martyrs and on which an oratory now stands in their honour.
On 1 May, 2021, Gabriel Longueville became the patron of the new parish created by merging the parishes of ” Sainte-Claire d’Annonay – Vocance ” and “Saint-Christophe lès Annonay”.
SOURCE
Gabriel Longueville (Wikipedia.fr)
Carlos Muria
Own work / Wikipedia / CC BY SA 4.0
Blessed Carlos de Dios Murias OFMConv was born in San Carlos Minas, Córdoba , on 10 October, 1945. His mother was a teacher in the town of Villa Giardino and his father, a wealthy real estate agent and well-known radical politician in the area, projected for his son a military career with which he did not agree. Thus, Carlos attended high school at the General Paz Military High School in Córdoba.
At that time he met Bishop Enrique Angelelli in the priestly home located in La Cañada . After high school, Carlos wanted to study veterinary medicine but that career did not exist in Córdoba. He began to study civil engineering, but soon abandoned it and chose to help his father in the field. Distancing herself from him, she returned to the city and began working at the Land Registry. Carlos already expressed his concern for the selfishness of the bourgeoisie and his esteem for Angelelli, the first chaplain JOC.
He became increasingly linked to the Order of Conventual Friars Minor : he entered in 1965 and made his novitiate and simple profession in 1966. On December 17, 1972, he was ordained a priest in Buenos Aires by Bishop Enrique Angelelli. Murias expressly requested to be ordained by the bishop of the diocese of La Rioja whom he had known since he was a teenager, known for his preferential option for the poor and for his pastoral care of the peasants.
Murias began his life as a friar in the minor seminary located on the outskirts of Moreno (Buenos Aires) , and later continued in the poorest neighborhoods of a Franciscan parish in José León Suárez (Buenos Aires) , but ended up asking his superiors for authorisation to move to the diocese of La Rioja in order to collaborate with Angelelli. In 1975, he obtained this authorization from the Provincial Custos, Brother Jorge Morosinotto.
The situation in the province of La Rioja was characterised by strong social differences: on the one hand, a few rich and powerful families, owners of large tracts of land and owners of mining deposits; on the other, the vast majority of the poor population, with a high percentage of laborers or minifundistas who worked small plots of land with very rudimentary implements, who lived by grazing sheep or goats, or who were state, provincial, or municipal employees. Murias and the French priest Gabriel Longueville were appointed by Angelelli as vicar and parish priest respectively of Chamical , then a small town made up mainly of farmers.
After the 1976 military dictatorship began, Murias began to receive notices and summons in the barracks, where the soldiers explained that “Yours is not the Church we believe in.”
In one of his last homilies, Fray Carlos de Dios Murias said:
They will be able to silence the voice of this priest. They will be able to silence the voice of the bishop, but they will never be able to silence the voice of the Gospel.
SOURCE
Carlos de Dios Muria (Wikipedia.es)
Wenceslao Pedernera
Wenceslao Pedernera was born in La Calera, San Luis province, on September 28, 1936. In 1961 he migrated to Mendoza to work at the Gargantini wine company.
In 1962 he married Marta Ramona Cornejo, with whom he had three daughters, María Rosa, Susana Beatriz and Estela Marta.
In 1968 he began to participate actively in the activities of the Catholic Church, joining the Rural Movement of Argentine Catholic Action in Cuyo. In 1972 he met the bishop of La Rioja, Enrique Angelelli and his pastoral action committed to the poor, which is why he moved with his family to Sañogasta ..
On the night of July 24, 1976, while he was at his home, he was attacked by an Army task force that shot him in front of his wife and daughters. He died hours later at the Chilecito hospital. His last words were to ask his family not to hate.
SOURCE
Wenceslao Pedernera (Wikipedia)