When fifteen years ago Horacio Vertbitsky heard from the lips of former Lieutenant Commander Adolfo Scilingo that military chaplains were a fundamental part of a sinister plan was to drive out civilians from airplanes, as "comforting officers returning from such missions sinister" , never thought that this conversation would trigger an extensive research work. The Left Hand of God (Editorial Sudmericana), introduced recently, is the fourth title of "Political History of the Catholic Church , the detailed study carried out by the journalist who revealed the active participation of Argentine clergy in the life of the country.
"He asked for it"
The Left Hand of God covers the period from March 24, 1976 to December 10, 1983 and reveals, with precise details, quotes, dates and direct testimony to what extent the Church endorsed, justified and overlapped the repressive apparatus of the dictatorship: no less than the deaths, torture, abductions and disappearances carried out by the military government.
In its early pages, the book shows the true story of the assassination of Luis Bonamino, a militant Peronist Youth University and nephew of Victor Bonamino military priest, who did absolutely nothing to prevent her abduction and implementation. According account Verbitsky, when the boy's parents asked helps the priest to find his son, the answer was: 'He was asking for it'.
Almost like the Holy Inquisition
Based on the philosophical writings of St. Augustine and St. Thomas, that "if the order established by God dear is threatened or assaulted, violence is necessary to turn it back," many high priests of the clergy supported the torture Argentina and kidnappings as they felt that "good is the violence being committed in defense of truth, goodness and order, against the error, evil and disorder." By then the vicar of Armed Forces, Adolfo Tortola, blasted priests protesting against the structures of the church and called it "unwise" to the phrase: "You can not preach to empty stomachs."
The Left Hand of God tells , accurate data, how Church consented to the atrocities carried out by the military government during the years of dictatorship, as well as the internal fracture suffered , which led to the resignation of priests and in some cases, their torture and death. After his sad interventions in the country's politics, credibility and trust the clergy, by Argentine citizens, is greatly diminished. "Leave the fighting for control of the state is, rather than an alternative, the only way Catholic Church has to stop its slow but steady descent into irrelevance," says the journalist.
Political History of the Catholic Church
From time Scilingo Verbitsky told that the top hierarchy of the Church approved the "death flights" and had peace officers in charge of throwing the body into the sea, the journalist had published four volumes of "Political History of Church Catholic." The books were "Christ conquers " Church in Argentina: a century of political history (1884-1983), "Violence Evangelical " of Lonardi to Cordobazo; weapons Vigil of Cordobazo 1969 to March 23, 1976 and The Left Hand of God , the last dictatorship (1976-1983).