Back in Argentina, Priest Faces 'Dirty War' Charges

[Judi Lynn]

Back in Argentina, Priest Faces 'Dirty War' Charges


By LARRY ROHTER
Published: April 26, 2004


LA PLATA, Argentina - The parishioners in the coastal village in Chile knew their priest simply as the Rev. Christián González. Only his accent gave away that he was an Argentine.

So it came as a shock to them when he traveled back to Argentina last year and had to face charges here for crimes dating to the military dictatorship of the 1970's. Under his real name, Christián von Wernich, he is accused of 19 counts of murder and 33 of abduction and torture.

Father von Wernich, 65, has emerged as a potent symbol of the institutional atrocities of the period, when the junta chased down leftist opponents, sometimes winning the support of the Roman Catholic Church's hierarchy for its goals. He has attracted particular attention because he combines both elements: he was a priest who also worked for the government, as a chaplain for the feared Buenos Aires provincial police.

That trauma of three decades ago is being re-examined now that President Néstor Kirchner has ended a long amnesty that protected people responsible for the abuses. Father von Wernich was indicted in September and is fighting the charges, on both constitutional and religious grounds.
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http://www.nytimes.com/2004/04/26/international/americas/26prie.html?th
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A protest in 1988 in the home parish of the Rev. Christián von Wernich, who is now accused of murder and other crimes committed in the 1970's.