Miguel Esteban Hesayne (26 December 1922 – 1 December 2019) was an Argentinian

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 ...

prelate. He served as

Bishop A bishop is an ordained clergy member who is entrusted with a position of authority and oversight in a religious institution. In Christianity, bishops are normally responsible for the governance of dioceses. The role or office of bishop is ca ...

of the Diocese of Viedma from 1975 to 1995. He was born in

Azul, Buenos Aires Azul (, English: "blue", for the stream Azul, which flows through the area) is the head city of the Azul Partido, located at the center of the Buenos Aires Province in Argentina, 300 km south of Buenos Aires. It has 63,000 inhabitants as per t ...

on 26 December 1922. He was

ordained Ordination is the process by which individuals are consecrated, that is, set apart and elevated from the laity class to the clergy, who are thus then authorized (usually by the denominational hierarchy composed of other clergy) to perform va ...

as a

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 ...

on 12 December 1948. He was appointed bishop of Viedma, Río Negro, on 5 April 1975, ordained on 4 June and installed on 8 July of the same year, at the age of 52. Hesayne was the bishop of Viedma for 20 years, until 28 June 1995, when he resigned. He ruled his episcopal see during the

dictatorial 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 ...

regime of 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 ...

(1976–1983), and was among the very few members of the Argentine Catholic hierarchy to openly criticize its

human rights Human rights are Morality, moral principles or Social norm, normsJames Nickel, with assistance from Thomas Pogge, M.B.E. Smith, and Leif Wenar, 13 December 2013, Stanford Encyclopedia of PhilosophyHuman Rights Retrieved 14 August 2014 for ce ...

abuses and crimes, such as the murder (masqueraded as a road accident) of bishop

Enrique Angelelli Enrique Ángel Angelelli Carletti (17 June 19234 August 1976) was a bishop of the Catholic Church in Argentina who was assassinated during the Dirty War for his involvement with social issues. Angelelli, whose commitment to the "Church of the ...

by a military task force in 1976. Hesayne died on 1 December 2019 at the age of 96.

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