MercoPress. South Atlantic News Agency

Francis first beatification could be a Franciscan friar killed by Argentine military

Carlos de Dios Murias was kidnapped in July 1976 and two days was found dead with no eyes and no hands

A Franciscan friar tortured and killed by Argentina’s last civil-military dictatorship, could become the first religious leader to be beatified by Pope Francis according to a piece in the Italian newspaper La Stampa.

In statements to the Italian newspaper La Stampa, Father Carlos Trovarelli –Provincial Minister of the Conventual’s Friars in Argentina and Uruguay, explained that the beatification process of Carlos de Dios Murias was led by Bergoglio “with discretion” to prevent other Argentine bishops “who still opposed to initiatives based on priests’ social commitment” to stop the canonization of Dios Murias, ordained by Argentine priest Enrique Angelelli.

Before the military overthrew the government of Isabel Martínez de Perón in April 1976, Angelelli sent Dios Murias and French priest Gabriel Longueville to the El Chamizal town in La Rioja, to assist local poor peasants.

Dios Murias received threats –“Yours is not the church we believe in”- and in July 1976 both priests were kidnapped and taken to an Air Force base. Two days later, his body was found in the countryside, with no eyes and no hands.

“As soon as the diocese of La Rioja started the canonization process, cardinal Bergoglio immediately signed the documents. It was May of 2011, when nobody suspected he would become the Pope,” Trovarelli told reporter of La Stampa and praised Bergoglio’s “prudence” that he said allowed the canonization proceedings to continue.