Bishop Emeritus of Argentina, Mons. Antonio Juan Baseotto, died Monday in Buenos Aires at 93 years old. The current military bishop, Mons. Santiago Olivera, remembered him as a “close father and pastor.”
The exequial mass will be in the Castrense Cathedral Stella Maris, in the Autonomous City of Buenos Aires, at the time to confirm.
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The conflict with Kirchnerism
When communicating the death, Mons. Olivera recalled His time at the head of the military diocese, between 2002 and 2007, and said that since 2005, “by arbitrary decision of the government of that time, he could not exercise his ministry with absolute freedom.”
The newspaper refers to the same episode The nationrecalling that then President Néstor Kirchner issued a decree stirring him from his function as a shepherd of the armed and security forces, following a letter in which the military bishop recriminated to the national government his position in favor of abortion and his campaign to distribute prophylactics.
In this letter, the prelate was heading to the then Minister of Health, Ginés González García, expressing: “When you publicly distributed the young people publicly, he remembered the text of the Gospel where our Lord affirms that those who scandalize the little ones deserve to be hanged a mill stone around the neck and throw it into the sea.”
The government’s reaction was due to the similarity of the biblical passage with the so -called “death flights”, a method used during the military dictatorship in Argentina that consisted of throwing people kidnapped from an plane to the sea.
The episode resulted in a serious conflict between the national and Vatican government, which for eleven years kept the military bishopric.
“Despite this (Mons. Baseotto) continued his mission, until on May 15, 2007, the Holy Father Benedict XVI accepted his resignation, therefore from there he was Bishop Emeritus,” said Mons. Olivera, and said that “Mons. Baseotto celebrated Holy Mass every Sunday in the Church Our Lady of the victories belonging to the Redeemer, community to which community belonged. ”
“As a military church, bishop, lay priests and faithful, members of our military family, especially those who had Mons. Juan Antonio as a close father and pastor, we add and join in prayer with the renewed certainty that this has been his Easter. We pray for the comfort of his relatives and his eternal rest,” the prelate concluded.
His body was found in his department’s room, so the corresponding legal procedure must be carried out. Once the process is completed, the day and schedule of the exequial mass will be reported.
Your will: be fired with “the simplest and cheap” and “Do not stop praying”
When the news of his death was known, the testament Prepared by Mons. Baseotto in 2011:
“I thank the Lord to give me life and how much he carries: my family, the Christian atmosphere that I had to live in these almost eighty years. I thank God for the gift of faith and baptism, (…). I appreciate the gift of the priestly vocation that with all that the religious family means for me. I appreciate the gift of the priesthood that I received a day in full.”
“I record that I never moved a reason for resentment or bad intentions with people. If someone has felt it like that, or as injustice, I honestly ask for forgiveness …”, he emphasizes in another paragraph.
“As for me Exequias: the simplest and cheap.
Who was Mons. Baseotto?
Mons. Antonio Juan Baseotto was born in Buenos Aires on April 4, 1932. Son of Italian parents, he was ordered priest in the congregation of the Blessed Redeemer (Redeemer Parents) on April 6, 1957.
Pope John Paul II appointed him Bishop Coadjtor de Añatuya on February 1, 1991; He received episcopal ordination on April 27, 1991 at the Añatuya Cathedral from the hands of Mons. Jorge Gottou. He was a diocesan bishop of this event by succession since December 21, 1992.
John Paul II chose him Bishop Castrense on November 8, 2002, took possession on December 18, 2002 and resigned by age on May 15, 2007. His episcopal motto was “for him, with him and in him.”
Julieta Villar
I am a journalist, a graduate in Communication from the National University of La Matanza in Argentina. I have work experience in non -governmental organizations. Since 2016 I dedicate myself to Catholic journalism, first in the Argentine Catholic Information Agency (AICA) and, since 2022, as a correspondent for ACI Press for Argentina, Chile, Uruguay and Bolivia.