BUENOS AIRES, OCT. 12, 2007 (<A href="http://www.zenit.org ">Zenit.org</A>).- The Argentinean episcopate says that it regrets the crimes committed by a priest during Argentina's 1976-1983 dictatorship. The priest has been condemned to life in prison.
Former Buenos Aires police force chaplain Father Christian Von Wernich was convicted Tuesday of complicity in seven homicides, 31 cases of torture and 42 kidnappings. An estimated 30,000 disappeared during the military junta's rule.
After the sentence was made public, the Argentinean bishops' conference said that "the steps that justice is taking to clarify these facts must help us renew the efforts of all citizens toward the path of reconciliation and they are a call to stay away from both impunity and hate."
The text, signed by Cardinal Jorge Bergoglio, president of the conference, added: "If any member of the church, no matter his condition, would have endorsed with his recommendation or complicity some of these acts -- the violent repression -- he would have acted under his personal responsibility, in a wrong way and committing a sin against God, humanity and his conscience.
"We pray for him, so God helps him and gives him the grace he needs to understand and amend the harm he has caused."
Bishop Martín de Elizalde of the Diocese Nueve de Julio, to which Father von Wernich belonged, said that he regrets "that we have found in our country so much division and hate, which we could not prevent or heal as a Church."
The fact "that a priest, by act or omission, was so far from the requirements of the mission that was given to him ... leads us to ask for forgiveness with sincere regret, while praying to our Lord to enlighten us in order to accomplish our vocation of unity and service."
ZE07101206 - 2007-10-12