Argentine Catholic Apostolic Church - The ICAA and The Military Junta in Argentina

The ICAA and The Military Junta in Argentina

Given the political situation in Argentina in 1974–1976, and the return from exile of "The Old Man", Juan Perón, the National Church could be assumed to have come into its own, although Perón himself, by Badanelli’s own testimony, had no interest in supporting an alternative Catholic Church to Rome. The ICAA did, however, become linked somehow to the repressive terrorist group The Triple ‘A’ (AAA – Anti Anarchist Alliance) and its supposed commandant the high–ranking politician Lopez Rega. The widely considered complicity of the Roman Catholic hierarchy with the Military Junta (1976–1983), as opposed to the organized resistance at Catholic ‘grass roots’ level, invites questions as to why the oppressors should have seen any benefit in espousing the actions of this schismatic church, although a schismatic Bishop was persuaded to celebrate a Nationalist Christmas Eve Mass at the site of Perón’s proposed "Altar of the Fatherland" (Altar de la Patria) in 1974.