# Death of Bishop Enrique Angelelli (4 August 1976)

URL: https://allhistories.com/argentina/timeline/1976-death-of-bishop-enrique-angelelli
Location: Punta de los Llanos, La Rioja
Themes: Human Rights

On 4 August 1976 Enrique Angelelli, Catholic Bishop of La Rioja, died when the truck he was travelling in overturned near Punta de los Llanos as he returned from a memorial Mass for two murdered priests of his diocese, Gabriel Longueville and Carlos de Dios Murias. The dictatorship declared the death a traffic accident. Angelelli had championed rural workers, cooperatives and the post-conciliar Church's 'option for the poor', and had clashed with local landowners and the military. His death came weeks after the San Patricio church massacre of 4 July 1976 in Buenos Aires, in which three Pallottine priests and two seminarians were shot dead, one of several killings of clergy and lay activists in this period. The Church hierarchy as a whole remained largely silent or supportive of the regime, though a minority of bishops spoke out. In 2014 a court in La Rioja ruled that Angelelli had been murdered and sentenced two senior officers to life imprisonment, citing evidence that his vehicle had been forced off the road. Pope Francis recognised Angelelli and his three companions as martyrs, and they were beatified in La Rioja in April 2019, making him a symbol of the persecuted Church under the dictatorship.

## Why it matters
Angelelli's case exposed both the persecution of committed Catholics and the complicity of parts of the Church hierarchy with the junta.

Ruler at the Time: [Jorge Rafael Videla](https://allhistories.com/argentina/rulers/jorge-rafael-videla)

## Sources
- [Wikipedia — Enrique Angelelli](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Enrique_Angelelli)
- [Wikipedia — Dirty War](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dirty_War)
- [Wikipedia (Spanish) — Masacre de San Patricio](https://es.wikipedia.org/wiki/Masacre_de_San_Patricio)
- [Encyclopaedia Britannica topic lookup — Enrique Angelelli bishop La Rioja](https://www.britannica.com/search?query=Enrique+Angelelli+bishop+La+Rioja)
- [Wikipedia — Dictatorship (period overview)](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/National_Reorganization_Process)