La Rioja
Angelelli gave his tacit authorization to the May 1968 first Encounter of the Movement of Priests for the Third World even if he never joined the movement himself.
After four years, on 3 July 1968, Pope Paul VI appointed Angelelli bishop of the Diocese of La Rioja, in northwestern Argentina.
In La Rioja, Angelelli encouraged the creation of unions of miners, rural workers and domestic workers, as well as cooperatives to manufacture knitting works, bricks, clocks and bread, and to claim and work idle lands. One of these cooperatives asked for the expropriation of a latifundio (large estate) that had grown through the appropriation of smaller estates as their owners could not pay up their debts. Governor Carlos Menem, promised he would deliver the estate to the cooperative.
On 13 June 1973, Angelelli went to Anillaco, Menem's birthtown, to preside over the patronal feasts. He was received by a mob led by merchants and landowners, among them Amado Menem, the governor's brother, and his sons César and Manuel. The mob entered the church by force, and when Angelelli suspended the celebrations and left, they threw stones at him. Governor Menem withdrew his support to the cooperative on the basis of "social unrest". Angelelli denounced conservative groups, called off religious celebrations in the diocese, and declared a temporary interdict over the Menems and their supporters.
The Superior General of the Jesuits, Pedro Arrupe, and the Archdiocese of Santa Fe, Vicente Faustino Zazpe, sent by the Holy See as an overseer, visited La Rioja and supported Angelelli, who had offered his resignation and asked the Pope to ratify or withdrew his trust. Before Zazpe, the interdicted demanded for Angelelli's removal, while military marches where broadcast through a loudspeaker. Almost all priests of the diocese met with Zazpe to support Angelelli and told him that "the powerful manipulated the faith to preserve an unjust and oppressed situation of the people" and to take advantage of the "cheap, underpaid workforce".
On the other hand, the president of the Argentine Episcopal Conference, Adolfo Tortolo, said that the Conference should not mediate, and Nuncio Lino Zanini openly supported the interdicted, to whom he gave crucifixes as gifts.
Zazpe concluded his inspection with a joint mass with Angelelli and expressing his full support for his pastoral work and with regards to doctrine.
Read more about this topic: Enrique Angelelli