5 - De-politicisation and Reconciliation

Summary

With a dramatic change in political circumstances, and the Movement of Priests for the Third World (MSTM) in a process of fragmentation by the end of 1973, liberationist Christianity entered a new stage in its development as a socio-religious movement. From 1974, Argentina was an increasingly hostile and dangerous environment for the revolutionary left, and with the onset of the military dictatorship (1976–1983), repressive state violence multiplied. This combination of movement fragmentation and environmental hostility presented the liberationist Christian movement, therefore, with an unprecedented situation. The final three chapters of this book set out to explore a question that has hitherto not been adequately addressed by scholars: how did the liberationist Christian movement respond to the period of state terrorism (1974–1983) in Argentina? In venturing an answer, these identify three different options and trajectories: de-politicisation and reintegration into hierarchical Church structures; revolutionary intransigence, tending to involve a further distancing from the ecclesial institution; and a shift toward the politics of human rights.

To undertake the analysis, some understanding of the dynamics of the period is required in order to gain a more comprehensive understanding of the choices made by different actors. This chapter therefore begins by introducing certain key points about the period of state terror, recapitulating the lead-up to the March 1976 coup and the role of the spectral figure of the so-called subversive enemy. Subsequently, the chapter explores some of the various decisions, subtleties and consequences involved in the trajectory of de-politicisation and reconciliation with Church structures, analysed primarily in the case of the leading Buenos Aires MSTM members. It assesses one of the most pressing issues within the movement – recourse to violence by revolutionaries as a political instrument – in order to explore the different perspectives and processes that shaped responses. The chapter then goes on to examine the notes of a meeting during a spiritual retreat at Los Toldos, in which various slum-priests conversed with Rafael Tello, one of intellectuals associated with the theology of the people, on the need to de-politicise and reintegrate into ecclesial structures, and the trajectory of Lucio Gera, who went from being marginalised by the ecclesial hierarchy in 1970 to one of the architects of a major episcopal document during the dictatorship.