Pope marks 50th anniversary of murder of Argentine 'Martyr of the Poor' Carlos Mugica

Pope Francis commemorates the 50th anniversary of the assassination of Argentine priest Carlos Múgica upholding his legacy of serving the poor and marginalized.

By Francesca Merlo

On 11 May 1974, Argentine priest Carlos Múgica, known as the "Martyr of the Poor" was shot and killed after evening mass at the San Francisco Solano parish in the Villa Luro district of Buenos Aires.

He is remembered, in particular, for his dedication to the poor. Amongst those celebrating his life on the 50th anniversary of his death, is Pope Francis, who sent a letter to mark the occasion.

Pope Francis' words

Through his words, read out by the Archbishop of Buenos Aires, Jorge Ignacio García Cuerva, Pope Francis greeted all those who gathered to commemorate this anniversary during Mass at the conclusion of the "Múgica Week" on 12 May in Buenos Aires.

"As in every Church celebration - which is much more than a historical commemoration - there is an opportunity to renew the fraternal and committed presence among those who bear heavy crosses," said Pope Francis, encouraging everyone to "continue to put their hearts and bodies alongside those who suffer all kinds of poverty."

Pope Francis emphasised that Father Carlos' testimony "teaches us not to be dragged by ideological colonisation, nor by the culture of indifference."

"Let us ask the Lord that the principles of the Social Doctrine of the Church bear fruit in our communities and, through them, in all social life," he added.

The Holy Father also invited the faithful to "seek places of integration, discarding the disqualification of the other" and he called for "the rift to end, not with silence and complicity, but by looking into each other's eyes, acknowledging errors and eradicating exclusion."

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Fr. Carlos Mugica – The Fear of The Truth (1973



[Fr. Carlos Mugica (October 7, 1930 – May 11, 1974) was an Argentine “slum priest” and member of the Movement of Priests for the Third World (Movimiento de Sacerdotes para el Tercer Mundo), and praised by Pope Francis in an interview. While he was associated with the Peronist Left, Fr. Mugica took a staunchly non-violent stance. This position led, before his murder in 1974, to a growing distance between him and groups engaged in armed struggle, such as the Montoneros. While some claim he was murdered by the Montoneros, the more widely accepted position is that he was murdered by the Argentine Anticommunist Alliance (Alianza Anticomunista Argentina) death squad.]

[The following text is taken from the last chapter of Fr. Carlos Mugica’s 1973 book Cristianismo y Peronismo.]

Christians are called to give testimony to the truth, and to struggle with all our power against injustice, even if this brings, as a consequence, prison, torture, kidnapping, and eventually death. Faced with this difficult demand that has existed from the beginning of the life of the Church, the vigorous word of Christ constantly encourages us: “Do not be afraid of those who kill the body but cannot kill the soul. Rather, be afraid of the One who can destroy both soul and body in hell” (Matthew 10:28). Let us fear this new Gehenna that is the consumer society; although it [consists] of the consumption of the few, and hunger for the many; this society [that] closes us, indifferent to the terrible violence that it contains. Let us fear this society which, while submerging the people in hunger and oppression, proposes to a select minority hedonism and eroticism as the key to happiness, forgetting once again Jesus Christ, who warns us: “Man shall not live by bread only, but by every word that proceedeth out of the mouth of God” [Matthew 10:28]. We live in an obvious state of institutionalized violence, which is only inconspicuous to some functionary with a proscriptive mentality, and insensible to the pain of the Argentine people.

Is it not institutionalized violence that the worker suffers, perhaps, when he barely collects 40.000 pesos per month, needing to pay for the price of milk, meat, or sugar? Is not the increasingly alarming rise in infant mortality, demonstrated by the latest official statistics, institutionalized violence? This increase is explicable, among other reasons, because many workers are incapable of paying essential medical bills for their children. If somebody doubts this claim, let them go down to one of the numerous Villas Miserias [shanty towns/slums in Argentina], hygienically baptized as Villas de Emergencia. They represent the subconscious of Buenos Aires. They are the most overwhelming expression of the institutionalized violence that the people suffer — to have awareness that there, in the city, there are more than one hundred thousand vacant apartments.

The Comisión Permanente del Episcopado Argentino, has pointed out already, this past year, the dramatic situation of the working class in Argentina; the increasing proletarianization of the middle class; [and] the capitulation of a large portion of men of the law, who turn a blind eye to the well-established accusations of torture and abuse that Argentinians suffer. Monseñor Zaspe, archbishop of Santa Fe, well-known for his calm prudence, in his recent pastoral letter, Conciencia política y Evangelio, characterized the solution that we live in this way: “The results of six years of the Argentine Revolution are completely negative” [Revolución Argentina was the name — given by the military leaders themselves — of the military dictatorship which lasted from June 1966 to 1973]. Referring to the governments that have succeeded each other, one after another, he characterizes as very serious events, the suspension of […] constitutional guarantees, the state of siege, the extension of repressive legislation and the death penalty. He continues: “However, no revolutionary transformation was made, only changes in management, implementation of infrastructure, the promotion of gambling, innumerable economic plans […], high cost of living, closure of jobs, inflation, foreign exchange and capital flight, rural exodus, and a shaky economic order.” The recent developments of Mendoza, San Juan, and Tucumán, further darken the outlook.

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