Christian Von Wernich- Sins Of The Father

UPDATE:

In Argentina, a former police chaplain has been sentenced to life in prison for torture, kidnapping and murder of dissidents during Argentina’s so-called ‘dirty-war.” Roman Catholic priest Christian Von Wernich is the first clergy member to go on trial for crimes committed by U.S.-backed military regimes in Latin America during the 1970s and 1980s. Outside the courtroom in the city of La Plata, crowds cheered and set off firecrackers as the verdict was announced. Adriana Calvo, who was detained under the Argentine junta, hailed the ruling.

Hell yeah!

Original post August 16th:- 

The three ex-subversives who were still alive were taken out. They were thrown on the grass, the doctor gave them two injections each, directly in the heart, with a reddish poisonous liquid. Two died but the physician left all three for dead. They were loaded on to a van belonging to the unit and were taken to Avellaneda. We went to wash and change our clothes because we were bloodstained. Father Von Wernich left in another car. We immediately went to the Police Headquarters where Chief Inspector Etchecolatz, Father Von Wernich and all the members of the group involved in the operation were waiting for us. Father Von Wernich saw that what had happened had shocked me, and spoke to me telling me that what we had done was necessary; it was a patriotic act and God knew it was for the good of the country. Those were his very words … (Testimony of Julio Alberto Emmed, file No. 683.)

The priest returned several times; on one occasion he ordered me to remove the blindfold from my eyes, and when I refused to do so, he removed it himself. He told me he came from the parish church of Nueve de Julio in the Buenos Aires province. I once overheard Christian Von Wernich reply to a detainee who was begging for his life to be spared that ‘the life of men depends on God and your collaboration’. On another occasion he came to me and touching the hair on my chest smiled and said, ‘They burned the hairs …’ I also heard him defend and justify tortures, acknowledging that he had on occasion witnessed them. (Testimony of Luis Velasco, file No. 6949.)

Former Chaplin Christian Von Wernich wore a priest’s collar and bulletproof vest as he sat behind reinforced glass in a federal court. The court clerk read charges accusing him of collaborating with state security agents and covering up crimes in seven deaths, 31 cases of torture, and 42 cases of illegal imprisonment. He answered basic court questions but refused to testify in the case, stating, “Following the advice of Dr. Jerollini who is my lawyer. I am not going to make a declaration. And I am not going to accept questions.”

An estimated 30,000 people were killed during the military junta’s reign of terror. As his trial began, hundreds of human rights activists stood outside the courtroom in the city of La Plata to decry Von Wernich as a murderer…At least 120 witnesses are slated to testify against Von Wernich and the court has taken precautions to protect their safety, putting up police fences around the courthouse and installing metal detectors.

The Catholic Church relocated Von Wernich to Chile at his request to avoid criminal persecution in 1996, just before a series of trials began in La Plata in 1998.

Christina Valdez’s, whose husband was kidnapped and disappeared in La Plata in 1976, describes how she felt seeing Von Wernich on trial. “Looking at Von Wernich is looking at the face of a murderer. I suppose that all the relatives of the disappeared must feel a similar sensation: a certain impunity because one has to sit and swallow down everything that he or she feels in that moment. You can’t yell at the murderer, you can’t scream assassin.”

…former Marine captain Adolfo- Scilingo, who was sentenced to 645 years in prison by a Spanish court, reported that the catholic hierarchy approved drugging dissidents and dropping them from planes into the Atlantic Ocean during the “vuelos de muerte,” as a Christian form of death.

Journalist Horacio Verbitsky recently published a book on the Catholic Church’s involvement with the military dictatorship. In his book, El Silencio (The Silence), he reports that the Catholic Church actively participated in the 1976-1983 dictatorship while having full knowledge of the human rights violations being committed at the time.

But beyond the horror, there is fear, a fear that is still present 30 years after the facts. “I am scared of coming here to be heard in this trial. Whatever the security measures deployed, the state can not guarantee me absolute security. If I come here, it is only for the 30,000 people who died and who did not have the choice” explains the resident witness in Spain. Since the end of the dictatorship, the fear of testifying has always been present in Argentina.

Some of the accused still benefit from the support of people high up. Their fear grew when last year during the trial of a former torturer, Julio Lopez, the main witness disappeared without trace. His disappearance created shock waves in Argentina, causing the ghosts and phantoms to reappear that people thought had been buried for ever.

There is some small redemption in the related decision that the government of Argentina has decided to stop sending soldiers to train at the School of the Americas. But the Vatican has made no atonement for its role, Bishop Antonio Baseotto who defended the military dictatorship’s use of torture retired in May. Two years ago he threatened the health minister with the old regimes execution method of being flown out to sea and thrown out of a plane for his support of abortion. Pope Benedict who lead the crushing of liberation theology once wore a Nazi uniform, as did many wealthy old men who made their homes in Argentina. He also believes that Hell is a real everlasting eternal damnation, it would be nice if you’re right, eh Benny?
(h/t Renegade Eye)