48 years after his death, Bishop called “walking together” under the guidance of the Riojan martyrs

The Bishop of La Rioja (Argentina), Mons. Dante Gustavo Braida, presided this Thursday, July 17, the Mass in memory of the Riojan martyrs: Mons. Enrique Angelelli; the priests Carlos Murias and Gabriel Longueville; and the lay Wenceslao Pedernera, a few days after the 48th anniversary of his deaths.

The Blessed Rioja martyrs were killed in 1976, during the last military dictatorship in Argentina. The priests Carlos de Dios Murias and Gabriel Longueville were kidnapped, tortured and shot on July 18 in Chamical; While Wenceslao Pedernera was killed on July 25 in front of her family.

In the case of Mons. Angelelli, on August 4, 1976, two cars collided the vehicle in which he was traveling next to P. Arturo Pinto on Route 38, from Chamical to La Rioja.

Father Pinto survived the accident, but Mons. Angelelli appeared about 25 meters from the vehicle, extended a cross -shaped mouth on the asphalt and with a strong blow to the neck.

Pope Francis officially recognized that his deaths had the character of “martyrdom in hate of faith” and were beatified on April 27, 2019.

48 years after that moment, numerous faithful from different communities approached the San Nicolás de Bari Cathedral and Sanctuary, where Blessed Angelli exercised his episcopal ministry, and where his remains also rest, to celebrate a Mass in memory of the four martyrs.

There, “said Mons. Braida in her homily,” “taught the entire Diocese the path of the Gospel for the liberation of the people and for a full life for all.”

The celebration was also broadcast on television and social networks. Within that framework, the bishop recalled that Mons. Angelelli “suffered when they prevented him from conveying these masses for ‘disposition of superiority’ as they informed him.”

The center and inspiring source of the Blessed Message, said the prelate, was “faith in Jesus Christ crucified, dead and resurrected.” A faith “nourished by Gospel that illuminated the concrete situations of life and led to a commitment to improving the reality of each person, especially the poorest and most vulnerable.”

In that line, he stressed: “It is for Jesus Christ for whom Mons. Enrique Angelelli, Carlos de Dios Murias, Gabriel Longueville and Wenceslao Pedernera gave their lives, not only the day they killed them but in their daily testimony of the Gospel, assuming the different situations of life with their light and looking from there their transformation”

“Mons. Angelelli, in his pastoral proposal he understood that faith in Jesus Christ should lead to a concrete action in the world. His life was a testimony of how to live the gospel amid the difficulties and how to love God and to others with all the forces seeking his liberation of all slavery and guiding him to a full life,” he said.

Therefore, as Angelelli did, he encouraged “walking together as a people of God”, all being “co -responsible for the life and mission of the Church.” At that point, he linked to walk together with the meaning of synodality.

“Walking together is for the mission, that is, to carry out the mission of the Church in today’s mission,” he encouraged. “Jesus sends us to the mission all the time” with his challenges and encouraged “to follow Christ in this time with generous joy and delivery.”