The Catholic Church is opening its archives, shaking sepulchral silences, airing issues that for decades were kept under four keys, proposing to address the past without taboos or prejudices.
"The truth will set you free: The Catholic Church in the spiral of violence in Argentina between 1966 and 1983" is a monumental work that is part of that current of revision of the past.
It is based on the archives of the Argentine Church and the Vatican that Pope Francis decided, in turn, to also declassify.
Its authors, historians and theologians, Federico Tavelli together with Carlos Galli, Luis Liberti and Juan Durán, were the first to access the archives, particularly those of the Holy See that were opened for the first time, material that includes, among other things, the letters from those who were looking for their loved ones, habeas corpus and reports on illegal repression during the last dictatorship.
More than ten years ago, the Argentine Episcopal Conference, made up of all the bishops of the country, adopted the decision to order its archives to allow public access, make them available to the families of the victims of State terrorism and scholars, so that following a protocol, they could access the existing documentation.
He also wanted to promote a historical investigation assuming that the Episcopate of that time was not up to the task.
They had apologized, they would eventually do it again, but they wanted to go further, promote a rigorous investigation.
They entrusted it to the Faculty of Theology of the UCA, which, in turn, formed a multidisciplinary team of historians and theologians.
This paved the way for a work that was reflected in three volumes, edited by Planeta, of which the first has just been presented and the second is expected for March.
It is not the first book on the subject, but it is the first based on that hitherto secret documentation.
Beginning with the dictatorship of the so-called "Argentine Revolution" of 1966, the work focuses on the period 1976-1983 but goes back further.
The authors present an exhaustive study of the theoretical conceptions and the concrete actions that influenced the positions of members of the Church in the face of the various forms of conflict and violence: the coup, guerrilla movements, parastatal gangs, State terrorism and the tragic balance of victims, especially the disappeared.
This first volume illuminates the issues vividly from the different ecclesiastical actors in the midst of the transformations of the Second Vatican Council: the variety of Catholic movements, changes in consecrated and religious life, the priesthood and politics in the 1960s. and 70, the diverse visions of the bishops and also the participation of Catholics in groups in defense of human rights.
Opening the ecclesiastical archives is also allowing other painful aspects of the past of the Catholic Church to be aired, such as cases of sexual abuse, following a path of discernment, repair and amendment.
A debt that continues to be settled, here and in many other countries.