Little is known throughout our Province about the five Pallottines who were killed in Argentina in 1976 during the military dictatorship. It would be good to know them, pray for them and pray for those responsible for their deaths.

The 4th of July 1976 was a Sunday.  In the early hours of the morning of that day, five people were brutally murdered; they were the members of the Pallottine Community of Saint Patrick’s Parish, Belgrano, in the city of Buenos Aires, Fr. Peter Dufau, Fr. Alfie Leaden, Fr. Alfie Kelly and two seminarians, Salvador Barbeito and Emilio Barletti. Just like Jesus, they died tragically, victims of the violence that comes from the misuse of power.They were killed at about one in the morning. The five were sleeping or trying to do so when a number of people, believed to be members of a right wing military group, broke into the presbytery. They brought the five together, bringing them from their bedrooms to the community room which had no windows looking onto the street and there they were kept for at least an hour. The intruders established the identities of each of their victims. Finally, they shot them in the back with machine guns and other weapons.  They fell, face down. The murderers kept firing. Some of the victims received more than seventy bullet wounds as they breathed their last. There they were left to be seen by anyone who entered the house. The lifeless bodies bled onto the red carpet that was on the floor of the room. Their bodies were left destroyed; even their faces were disfigured, except for the face of Emilio who had a smile on his lips. At three in the morning it was all over and the perpetrators of the crime left the house having searched it without taking any valuables with them, not even the money which could be plainly seen.

For a Christian to give one’s life is the explicit message of the Gospel of Jesus: it is to follow the same path as Him. They killed Jesus because He bothered the society of His time; because He defended His brothers and sisters; because He questioned authority if it wasn’t there to serve, because………in other words, because He was coherent; there was perfect harmony between His words and His actions.

This is what happened to the Belgrano community; they were coherent with the Gospel, and as it couldn’t be any other way, they bothered those in power at the time. The people in power would not accept any message other than their own; they applied their ideas by force. The five Pallottines gave their lives for the sake of the Kingdom of God; they left us but they continue to shout and to say, even today, that it is worth while being coherent with the Word of God, it is an ideal that gives meaning and sense to life. They tell us to give ourselves to the Lord and to do so in community, in communion, because individualism is not Christian.

Nobody has been brought to justice for this terrible crime but, with the support of the Archbishop of Buenos Aires, Cardinal Jorge Mario Bergoglio, the cause for their beatification has begun.

THEY LIVED TOGETHER AND THEY DIED TOGETHER.

WHO WERE THEY

Fr. Alfie Leaden was born in Buenos Aires on 23rd May 1919. His parents, Patricio Leaden and Brigida Ussher were of Irish decent. He was one of eight brothers and sisters, one of whom, Guillermo, was also ordained priest and became auxiliary bishop of Buenos Aires. He was educated by the Irish Mercy Sisters and later by the Pallottine Fathers. He did his noviciate and studied philosophy at the Pallottine seminary in Thurles. He was then sent to study theology in Rome but because of the war had to complete his studies in Buenos Aires where he was ordained to the priesthood in 1942. He worked in many Pallottine communities in Argentina and at the time of his death he was the Provincial Delegate for the Irish Pallottines in Argentina. He was 57 years old when he died.

Fr. Peter Dufau was born in Mercedes, in the Province of Buenos Aires on the 13th October 1908.  His parents died when he was very young and he and his sister were brought up by their French grandmother. On her death he joined the Pallottine Fathers as a postulant and his sister became a nun. He did his noviciate and studied philosophy in Thurles and his theology in Rome where he was ordained to the priesthood in 1933. His priesthood was dedicated to the schools and parishes run by the Pallottines in Argentina. He was 67 years old when he died.

Fr. Alfie Kelly was born in Suipacha in the Province of Buenos Aires on May 5th 1933. He was the youngest of the seven children of Juan Kelly and Elisa Casey. He joined the Pallottines at an early age and did his studies in Buenos Aires and Rome. He was ordained priest in 1957 and his father who was very ill at the time died barely a month after the celebration. He worked for many years in the Province of Buenos Aires but at the time of his death he was the Parish Priest of St. Patrick’s in Belgrano and responsible for student formation. He was also rector of one of the diocesan catechetical seminaries. He was spiritual director to the man who was to become the Cardinal Archbishop of Buenos Aires, Jorge Bergoglio. He was 43 years old when he died.

Salvador Barbeito was born in Pontevedra, Spain on September 1st 1946. When he was three years old his parents brought himself and his sister to live in Buenos Aires. After leaving school he studied philosophy and psychology and was also a catechist.  He worked as a secondary school teacher and was deeply interested in the academic and spiritual formation of young people. In 1974 he was appointed rector of the secondary school run by the Maronite Fathers in Buenos Aires. In 1975 he entered the house of formation of the Pallottine Fathers. He was 29 years old when he died.

Emilio Barletti was born in the Pallottine Parish of San Antonio de Areco on the 22nd November 1952. His father died when he was only two years old but his mother’s strong faith and his involvement in the life of the parish were a great strength to him in his early years. After leaving school he went to the Catholic University of Buenos Aires where he began to study law. After three years he decided to enter the house of formation of the Pallottine Fathers as a student for the priesthood. He was 23 years old when he died.