Heart and Soul: How the Church’s role in Argentina’s dictatorship shook the nation’s faith

The Documentary Podcast

BBC

Society & Culture, Documentary, Personal Journals

4.3 • 2.6K Ratings

🗓️ 22 March 2024

⏱️ 27 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

Next Year will mark 50 years since the start of a seven-year violent military dictatorship in Argentina. During this period, many who opposed the fascist regime were detained, kidnapped, tortured – and in some cases they disappeared never to be seen again. The Catholic church has always been very powerful in Argentina, and closely linked to the state. While some in the church were victims themselves, the hierarchy of the Church has been accused of playing a role in the dictatorship. At best, it has faced allegations of knowing what was going on and not doing enough to stop it. At worst, it has faced allegations of being actively complicit in some of the abuse the military was perpetrating. A group of mothers and grandmothers during this period set up a campaign to try and find their missing children. The ‘Madres’ and ‘Abuelas’ of Plaza de Mayo movement started on a pilgrimage in 1977, where the women wore the white cloth of their missing children’s diapers on their heads to identify themselves. Today, many of them are still looking for their children, and still identifiable by the white headscarves they wear to campaign each week. In this episode of Heart and Soul, the BBC’s Ione Wells and Jessica Cruz travel to Argentina to speak to some of the victims of the dictatorship. These include people who were kidnapped, detained and in some cases tortured themselves – sometimes in the presence of Church officials. And one of the ‘Madres’, aged 93, who still hopes to find her missing son before she dies. How did this affect their relationship with the Church? And how did witnessing atrocities like this impact their faith? Presenter: Ione Wells Producer: Jessica Cruz / Ione Wells Researcher: Emma Smith Series Producer: Rajeev Gupta

Transcript

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0:00.0	Hi Namalanta combo here with some very exciting news.
0:04.0	Dear Daughter is back for a new series.
0:07.0	I'm putting together a handbook to life for daughters everywhere
0:10.0	full of stories and advice to help navigate life.
0:13.0	That's Dear Daughter from the BBC World Service.
0:16.0	Find it wherever you get your BBC podcast. I'm in the center of Buenos Aires opposite the presidential palace.
0:27.0	I'm in the center of Buenos Aires opposite the presidential palace and every Thursday here a group called the Madras de
0:34.8	the mother's of Plaza de Mayo gather here to protest. In fact these iconic women
0:40.3	with a symbolic white handkerchief adorning their heads have been coming here for nearly 50 years.
0:46.0	They're fighting for justice for the victims of Argentina's brutal dictatorship which ruled the country
0:54.8	between 1976 and 1983.
0:58.9	Many of those victims were children, kidnapped, tortured, some disappeared, never to be seen by their mothers again. You're listening to the documentary from the BBC World Service. I'm Ioni Wells and for Heart and Soul which explores personal
1:24.8	approaches to spirituality from around the world, I'm in Argentina. I'm here to
1:29.9	meet the victims of Argentina's dictatorship and find out how that traumatic period of this country's history has impacted the faith of this largely Catholic country.
1:41.0	The church has a strong influence in all the military coup of the 20th century.
1:49.0	I didn't lose faith, but can you imagine all these people who are complicit?
1:53.0	And every day, somebody from Bishop's office, we come to this place that was an illegal detention center where they torch would be old to make sure that we were still there.
2:07.0	Well, this photo is the last picture of Alejandro, this one.
2:17.0	He was kidnapped in 1975 a year before the coup.
2:21.0	I've travelled across the city of Buenos Aires to the apartment of 93 year old
2:26.3	Tati Almeida. She is one of the Madras, the mothers of the Plaza de Mayo. Her
2:31.1	son Alejandro disappeared in 1975 when he was just 20 years old.
	...

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