On August 3, 1976, Father James Weeks and five seminarians of the La Salette congregation living with him in Córdoba, Argentina’s second largest city, were kidnapped. A mob burst into their house, claiming to be the police, looking for “subversive fighters.” The seminarians “disappeared” for a few days, were jailed and tortured for two months, and finally went into exile in the United States. Since the election of the first Latin American pope, the role that the Catholic Church played in Argentina’s “Dirty War” has been revisited. Critics argue that the Church did nothing and was even an accom ... More

On August 3, 1976, Father James Weeks and five seminarians of the La Salette congregation living with him in Córdoba, Argentina’s second largest city, were kidnapped. A mob burst into their house, claiming to be the police, looking for “subversive fighters.” The seminarians “disappeared” for a few days, were jailed and tortured for two months, and finally went into exile in the United States. Since the election of the first Latin American pope, the role that the Catholic Church played in Argentina’s “Dirty War” has been revisited. Critics argue that the Church did nothing and was even an accomplice of the dictators. On the other hand, bishops claim they didn’t know what was going on and tried to help when they could. Many scholars, and public opinion, have assumed that the Argentine historical context was similar to that of other Latin American countries, but unlike South American countries such as Chile and Brazil, in Argentina political violence was an acceptable means of political participation. There was popular support for both the guerrillas and the military government. Through a rigorous methodology this book contributes to the understanding of the Argentine context and the role of Catholics under state terror. The study provides a deeper view of the relationship between Catholicism and state terror during the Dirty War by examining the case of the La Salette missionaries, a group of Catholic seminarians who were arrested and tortured by military personnel who also claimed to be Catholics.