(LifeSiteNews) — December 22 will be the 50th anniversary of the martyrdom of Carlos Alberto Sacheri, who was besieged by a commando of the People’s Revolutionary Army (ERP) terrorist group while he was returning from Mass with his family in Buenos Aires. I do not hesitate to recognize that his death was a martyrdom, a fruit of his charity. There is throughout the history of the Church a history of martyrdom. Martyrdom does not consist in the suffering imposed on the martyr, but the charity that drives him to embrace the Cross. Charity, I stress, is the agape of the New Testament. The martyr surrenders himself to death with Christian fortitude.
Sacheri knew that his hour was approaching, though the attack was in fact a surprise. Almost two months prior, on October 28, 1974, philosopher and maestro of Catholic nationalism Jordán Bruno Genta was martyred at the hands of the ERP as he was leaving for Mass at a nearby parish. Sacheri, a Catholic thinker and patriot in a country beset by Marxist terrorists ready to turn it into another Cuba, understood that he was next.
He exercised his charity at his numerous conferences, both before educated university audiences and in popular settings. He was a faithful servant of the Church; he did not refuse to speak to a small parish group if requested. His Thomistic inspiration corresponded to his study of the Angelic Doctor under Father Julio Meinvielle. He also cultivated this philosophical inclination at Laval University in Quebec, Canada, where he frequented another teacher, Charles De Koninck, who came out against the personalist humanism of Jacques Maritain and opposed him on the primacy of the common good. Sacheri strengthened this approach in his study of the social doctrine of the Church developed in papal encyclicals.
Sacheri’s written work includes numerous articles and two important books, The Natural Order and The Clandestine Church. Thomistic philosophy and juridical inspiration converge in the first book, together with the social doctrine of the Church. For St. Thomas, ordo is equivalent to veritas; order and truth constitute the meaning of reality. The work remains highly topical, as constructivist thought eludes or opposes the metaphysical concept of nature.
The Clandestine Church focuses on the origins of the ecclesiastical third worldism of the 1960s and 1970s, which was based on a progressive interpretation of the Second Vatican Council. It is interesting to note the reaction of Pope Paul VI, who said, “We were expecting a blooming spring, but a harsh winter came.” Sacheri’s work shows the disastrous activity of the self-proclaimed Movement of Priests for the Third World, which was largely inspired by the Medellín documents, the work of an assembly of the Latin American Episcopal Council. It does not fail to name names: of local protagonists and European contacts, an updating of Catholic-Marxist dialogue, and the resulting confusion about the social teaching of Catholicism. This work cannot be perceived well by an episcopate situated in the “extreme center,” which detests the “right wing” and smilingly winks to the left.
Martyrdom must be recognized by the Church during the process of beatification. This is what has been requested of the Bishop of San Isidro, who has not considered it appropriate to initiate that process. At the time I criticized the ruling of canonist Vicente Llambías, who expressed a contrary opinion. It is now opportune to again urge the questioning of living witnesses so that the eventual process does not become a historical cause, which would be more complicated.
The 50th anniversary of Sacheri’s martyrdom commits us to share his personality and thought, especially among young people, who will be enriched by the example of charity that permeated his ecclesial and patriotic activity. It would be necessary to undertake a complete edition of his works: the two books, articles not collected in them, and also a translation of his doctoral thesis, written in French, on “the existence and nature of deliberation.”
The transmission of Sacheri’s thought should inspire more publications about his career. There is an important text (900 pages) by Héctor H. Hernández titled Sacheri: Preaching and Dying for Argentina.
+ Héctor Aguer
Archbishop Emeritus of La Plata
Buenos Aires, Friday, November 15, 2024
Memorial of Saint Albert the Great, Bishop and Doctor of the Church
Month of the Blessed Virgin Mary