Juan Carlos Aramburu (February 11, 1912 – November 18, 2004) was the

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 ...

Archbishop of Buenos Aires The Archdiocese of Buenos Aires (''Archidioecesis Bonaerensis'') is one of thirteen Latin Metropolitan archdioceses of the Catholic Church in Argentina, South America. The Archbishopric of Buenos Aires is the Primatial see (protocollary first-r ...

Argentina Argentina (), officially the Argentine Republic ( es, link=no, República Argentina), is a country in the southern half of South America. Argentina covers an area of , making it the second-largest country in South America after Brazil, th ...

, from 1975 to 1990, and was named to the

College of Cardinals The College of Cardinals, or more formally the Sacred College of Cardinals, is the body of all cardinals of the Catholic Church. its current membership is , of whom are eligible to vote in a conclave to elect a new pope. Cardinals are appoi ...

Pope Paul VI Pope Paul VI ( la, Paulus VI; it, Paolo VI; born Giovanni Battista Enrico Antonio Maria Montini, ; 26 September 18976 August 1978) was head of the Catholic Church and sovereign of the Vatican City, Vatican City State from 21 June 1963 to his ...

in 1976.

Biography

Aramburu was born in rural Reducción, in the Province of Córdoba,

. 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 ...

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 ...

in 1934 and became a

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 ...

in 1946, serving successively as auxiliary bishop, diocesan bishop (from 1953), and first archbishop (from 1957) of Tucumán. He created ten new parishes and built chapels in this diocese, as well as a House of Spiritual Exercises. His intense pastoral work included giving the

Confirmation In Christian denominations that practice infant baptism, confirmation is seen as the sealing of the covenant created in baptism. Those being confirmed are known as confirmands. For adults, it is an affirmation of belief. It involves laying on ...

to more than 1,000 people in one day. In 1967 he was named coadjutor archbishop of Buenos Aires, and on April 22, 1975, he was installed as archbishop, succeeding Antonio Caggiano. He was elevated to cardinal one year later, on May 24, 1976. Aramburu was the second youngest bishop in the history of the Argentine Church, and served for 70 years of priesthood, during which he consecrated ten bishops. At his death, he was the senior bishop by date of consecration in the entire Catholic Church. Active in retirement, he suffered a fatal cardiac failure as he prepared to hear confessions at the Shrine of San Cayetano.

Collaboration with National Reorganization Process

The year of Aramburu's elevation to cardinal coincided with the beginning 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 ...

. The

Mothers of the Plaza de Mayo The Mothers of the Plaza de Mayo is an Argentine human rights association formed in response to the National Reorganization Process, the military dictatorship by Jorge Rafael Videla, with the goal of finding the '' desaparecidos'', initially, a ...

, a group looking for information on their children who suffered

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

, wrote to top members of the ecclesiastical hierarchy for help, including Aramburu, but it did not get any response. Also, Aramburu did not denounce the murder 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 ...

, conducted by a military task force and disguised as a road accident; instead, he claimed that there was no evidence of it being a crime. In 1982, during a trip to Italy, Aramburu was interviewed by the Roman newspaper '' Il Messaggero'' and replied to a question about forced disappearances saying: "I don't understand how this question of guerrillas and terrorism has come up again; it's been over for a long time." On the issue of common graves with unidentified bodies being discovered, he claimed: "In Argentina there are no common graves. ... Everything was recorded in the regular fashion in the books. The common graves belong to people who died without the authorities being able to identify them. Disappeared? Let's not confuse things. You know that there are 'disappeared people' who live quietly in Europe." In 2002, an organization composed of children of disappeared people organized a protest to accuse Aramburu of

collaborationism Wartime collaboration is cooperation with the enemy against one's country of citizenship in wartime, and in the words of historian Gerhard Hirschfeld, "is as old as war and the occupation of foreign territory". The term ''collaborator'' dates to t ...

with the National Reorganization Process. The

Argentine Episcopal Conference The Argentine Episcopal Conference ( es, Conferencia Episcopal Argentina) is an episcopal conference of the Roman Catholic Church of Argentina that gathers the bishops of the country in order to discuss pastoral issues and in general all matters tha ...

released a document in defense of Aramburu. Rubén Capitanio, a priest, sent a critical letter to the Conference where he mentioned, among other things, that Aramburu had given

Holy Communion The Eucharist (; from Greek , , ), also known as Holy Communion and the Lord's Supper, is a Christian rite that is considered a sacrament in most churches, and as an ordinance in others. According to the New Testament, the rite was instituted ...

to people "that eknew were responsible of horrible public crimes" and that he had overlooked the human rights abuses at the Navy Mechanics School, within his jurisdiction.

References

External Links

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Juan Carlos Aramburu
at Cardinal Rating. {{DEFAULTSORT:Aramburu, Juan Carlos 1912 births 2004 deaths People from Córdoba Province, Argentina Argentine people of Basque descent Pontifical Gregorian University alumni Argentine cardinals Roman Catholic archbishops of Buenos Aires Participants in the Second Vatican Council 20th-century Roman Catholic archbishops in Argentina Burials at Buenos Aires Metropolitan Cathedral Cardinals created by Pope Paul VI Argentine Roman Catholic archbishops Roman Catholic bishops of Tucumán Roman Catholic archbishops of Tucumán Argentine expatriates in Italy