Christian Federico von Wernich (born 27 May 1938 in Concordia,

Entre Ríos Province Entre Ríos (, "Between Rivers") is a central province of Argentina, located in the Mesopotamia region. It borders the provinces of Buenos Aires (south), Corrientes (north) and Santa Fe (west), and Uruguay in the east. Its capital is Paraná ( ...

) is an

Argentine Argentines (mistakenly translated Argentineans in the past; in Spanish (masculine) or (feminine)) are people identified with the country of Argentina. This connection may be residential, legal, historical or cultural. For most Argentines, s ...

Roman Catholic Roman or Romans most often refers to: *Rome, the capital city of Italy *Ancient Rome, Roman civilization from 8th century BC to 5th century AD *Roman people, the people of ancient Rome *'' Epistle to the Romans'', shortened to ''Romans'', a lette ...

priest A priest is a religious leader authorized to perform the sacred rituals of a religion, especially as a mediatory agent between humans and one or more deities. They also have the authority or power to administer religious rites; in particu ...

and a former

chaplain A chaplain is, traditionally, a cleric (such as a Minister (Christianity), minister, priest, pastor, rabbi, purohit, or imam), or a laity, lay representative of a religious tradition, attached to a secularity, secular institution (such as a hosp ...

of the Buenos Aires Province Police while it was under the command of General

Ramón Camps Ramón Juan Alberto Camps (25 January 1927 – 22 August 1994) was an Argentina, Argentine general and the head of the Buenos Aires Provincial Police during the National Reorganization Process (1976–1983). Although he was found guilty of mul ...

, during the

dictator A dictator is a political leader who possesses absolute power. A dictatorship is a state ruled by one dictator or by a small clique. The word originated as the title of a Roman dictator elected by the Roman Senate to rule the republic in times ...

ial period known as the

National Reorganization Process The National Reorganization Process (Spanish: ''Proceso de Reorganización Nacional'', often simply ''el Proceso'', "the Process") was the military dictatorship that ruled Argentina from 1976 to 1983, in which it was supported by the United Sta ...

(''El proceso'') (1976–1983). Wernich worked in

Miguel Etchecolatz Miguel Osvaldo Etchecolatz (1 May 1929 – 2 July 2022) was an Argentine police officer, who worked in the Buenos Aires Provincial Police during the first years of the military dictatorship of the 1970s. Etchecolatz was deeply involved in the " ...

's Direction of Investigations of the provincial police with the

rank Rank is the relative position, value, worth, complexity, power, importance, authority, level, etc. of a person or object within a ranking, such as: Level or position in a hierarchical organization * Academic rank * Diplomatic rank * Hierarchy * H ...

of Inspector. He became internationally known in 2006 after being indicted for

murder Murder is the unlawful killing of another human without justification (jurisprudence), justification or valid excuse (legal), excuse, especially the unlawful killing of another human with malice aforethought. ("The killing of another person wit ...

and

kidnapping In criminal law, kidnapping is the unlawful confinement of a person against their will, often including transportation/asportation. The asportation and abduction element is typically but not necessarily conducted by means of force or fear: the p ...

in aid of the military junta; he was convicted at trial in October 2007 and sentenced to

life imprisonment Life imprisonment is any sentence of imprisonment for a crime under which convicted people are to remain in prison for the rest of their natural lives or indefinitely until pardoned, paroled, or otherwise commuted to a fixed term. Crimes for ...

Early life and education

Christian Federico von Wernich was born in 1938 into an ethnic German Catholic family. He attended parochial school and seminary. He was ordained as a Catholic priest in 1960.

Career

He became a chaplain of the Buenos Aires Province Police in the 1970s. The force was commanded by General

. This was during the military dictatorship known as

(''El proceso'') (1976–1983), when the military and security forces took extreme actions to suppress political dissent in the country. The period became known as the

Dirty War The Dirty War ( es, Guerra sucia) is the name used by the military junta or civic-military dictatorship of Argentina ( es, dictadura cívico-militar de Argentina, links=no) for the period of state terrorism in Argentina from 1974 to 1983 a ...

, and the government was later held responsible for tens of thousands of

forced disappearances An enforced disappearance (or forced disappearance) is the secret abduction or imprisonment of a person by a state or political organization, or by a third party with the authorization, support, or acquiescence of a state or political organiza ...

, kidnappings, torture, and deaths of political prisoners, in addition to widespread attacks of rural insurgents, which was later assessed as

genocide Genocide is the intentional destruction of a people—usually defined as an ethnic, national, racial, or religious group—in whole or in part. Raphael Lemkin coined the term in 1944, combining the Greek word (, "race, people") with the Latin ...

. Going beyond acting as a spiritual adviser to police and suspects, Wernich worked with the

of Inspector in

's Direction of Investigations of the provincial police. Two years after the return of democracy in 1983, the government began to prosecute crimes under the dictatorship, in what was known as the

Trial of the Juntas The Trial of the Juntas ( es, Juicio a las Juntas) was the judicial trial of the members of the ''de facto'' military government that ruled Argentina during the dictatorship of the Proceso de Reorganización Nacional (''el proceso''), which laste ...

in 1985. Wernich was among those accused of participation in the

, and collaborating in the

torture Torture is the deliberate infliction of severe pain or suffering on a person for reasons such as punishment, extracting a confession, interrogation for information, or intimidating third parties. Some definitions are restricted to acts c ...

of political prisoners. He declared that he was innocent. Action against those involved in the military dictatorship was discontinued after Congress passed the 1986

Ley de Punto Final The Full stop law, ''Ley de Punto Final'', was passed by the National Congress of Argentina in 1986, three years after the end of the military dictatorship of the Proceso de Reorganización Nacional (1976 to 1983) and restoration of democracy. F ...

, intended to "draw a line" under all that had happened until then. The country struggled to restore democratic institutions and rule of law. In 1991, President Carlos Saúl Menem pardoned

and other high-ranking leaders who had been convicted in the 1985 trial, setting off waves of protest. In 2003 Congress repealed the 1986 Ley de Punto Final. (In a court challenge, the Argentine Supreme Court ruled in 2005 that the law was un

constitution A constitution is the aggregate of fundamental principles or established precedents that constitute the legal basis of a polity, organisation or other type of Legal entity, entity and commonly determine how that entity is to be governed. When ...

al.) In 2003 the government re-opened prosecution of cases of

crimes against humanity Crimes against humanity are widespread or systemic acts committed by or on behalf of a ''de facto'' authority, usually a state, that grossly violate human rights. Unlike war crimes, crimes against humanity do not have to take place within the ...

committed during the Dirty War.

La Plata La Plata () is the capital city of Buenos Aires Province, Argentina. According to the , it has a population of 654,324 and its metropolitan area, the Greater La Plata, has 787,294 inhabitants. It is located 9 kilometers (6 miles) inland from th ...

Federal Judge Arnaldo Corazza gathered testimony from witnesses who placed von Wernich at three illegal detention centers (Puesto Vasco, Coti Martínez and Pozo de Quilmes). He ordered the priest's arrest on 25 September 2003, after Wernich was discovered hiding in the

Chile Chile, officially the Republic of Chile, is a country in the western part of South America. It is the southernmost country in the world, and the closest to Antarctica, occupying a long and narrow strip of land between the Andes to the east a ...

an seaside town of

El Quisco El Quisco is a Chilean city and commune in San Antonio Province, Valparaíso Region. Located in the country's central coast, it serves as a popular summer resort for the population of Santiago and forms part of the Coast of Poets, a cultural spa ...

under the assumed name of "Christian González". He was working as a priest, having returned to Argentina after earlier escaping to Chile.Alexei Barrionuevo, "Argentine priest testifies about church's role in 'dirty war'"
''New York Times,'' 17 September 2007 On 7 March 2006, the Federal Court of La Plata confirmed the indictment and detention of Wernich on charges of co-authorship of homicide, illegal restraints, and acts of torture (including that used against the kidnapped

Jacobo Timerman Jacobo Timerman (6 January 1923 – 11 November 1999), was a Soviet-born Argentine publisher, journalist, and author, who is most noted for his confronting and reporting the atrocities of the Argentine military regime's Dirty War during a peri ...

, the editor of ''

La Opinión ''La Opinión'' is a Spanish-language daily newspaper and website based in Los Angeles, California. It is the largest Spanish-language newspaper in the United States and the second-most read newspaper in Los Angeles (after ''The Los Angeles Time ...

''). Surviving victims declared that Wernich had questioned them under torture, subjected them to

mock execution A mock execution is a stratagem in which a victim is deliberately but falsely made to feel that their execution or that of another person is imminent or is taking place. The subject is made to believe that they are being led to their own executio ...

s, and, under the guise of counseling, urged them to confess. Some of his accusers alleged Wernich violated the sacraments of the church by breaking the seal of the confessional, a charge he has denied. Wernich's trial began on 5 July 2007 in La Plata, the capital of the

province of Buenos Aires Buenos Aires (), officially the Buenos Aires Province (''Provincia de Buenos Aires'' ), is the largest and most populous Argentine province. It takes its name from the city of Buenos Aires, the capital of the country, which used to be part of th ...

. He was accused of seven homicides and 41 instances of kidnapping and torture. The tribunal was composed of judges Carlos Rozanski, Norberto Lorenzo and Horacio Insaurralde, the same panel which had convicted and sentenced

in 2006. Before the trial, Wernich denied all charges, saying that while he did visit detention centers, he did not witness any human rights abuses there; however, on the first day of the trial, he exercised his

right to silence The right to silence is a legal principle which guarantees any individual the right to refuse to answer questions from law enforcement officers or court officials. It is a legal right recognized, explicitly or by convention, in many of the worl ...

. His accusers thought this was a sign that he did not want to practice

self-incrimination In criminal law, self-incrimination is the act of exposing oneself generally, by making a statement, "to an accusation or charge of crime; to involve oneself or another ersonin a criminal prosecution or the danger thereof". (Self-incrimination ...

by having to account for his crimes. On 9 October 2007 the court found him guilty of complicity in seven homicides, 42 kidnappings, and 32 instances of torture. The tribunal sentenced him to

.''El Clarín'', 9 October 2007
"Reclusión perpetua para Von Wernich"
Wernich's trial was thought to have revealed "the church's dark past during the dirty war, when it sometimes gave its support to the military's persecution of leftist opponents. That past stands in stark contrast to the role the church played during the dictatorships in Chile and Brazil, where priests and bishops publicly condemned the governments and worked to save those being persecuted from torture and death." During the trial, the Church was officially silent, although the Reverend Rubén Capitanio was called as a witness and was required to testify during the trial. He condemned the Roman Catholic Church's "complicity" in atrocities during the Dirty War. He said, "There are some that think that this trial is an attack on the church, and I want to say that this is a service to the church. This is helping us search for the truth." On Wernich's conviction, his superior, Bishop Martín Elizalde, apologised for Wernich being "so far from the requirements of the mission commended to him." When in 2010 it was reported that Wernich was still being permitted to officiate as a priest at

Mass Mass is an intrinsic property of a body. It was traditionally believed to be related to the quantity of matter in a physical body, until the discovery of the atom and particle physics. It was found that different atoms and different elementar ...

in prison, the bishop said that "at the appropriate time von Wernich's situation will have to be resolved in accordance with canonical law."[Sebastián Lacunza
"Torture Priest Still Celebrating Mass – Behind Bars"
Inter Press Service, 7 February 2010

References

External links

Information on von Wernich's trial provided by APDH La Plata

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Wernich, Christian Federico Von 1938 births Living people Argentine people of German descent Operatives of the Dirty War 20th-century Argentine Roman Catholic priests Argentine prisoners sentenced to life imprisonment Prisoners sentenced to life imprisonment by Argentina Place of birth missing (living people) Members of the clergy convicted of murder Catholic priests convicted of murder 21st-century Argentine Roman Catholic priests Police misconduct in Argentina People convicted of kidnapping

Early life and education

Career

See also

References

External links