Blessed Enrique Angelelli

Enrique Ángel Angelelli Carletti (17 July 1923 – 4 August 1976) was a bishop of the Catholic Church in Argentina who was assassinated during the Dirty War for his involvement with social issues. Angelelli commitment to the "Church of the Poor" offered a model for the future Pope Francis. His cause of sainthood opened in 2015. In June 2018 Pope Francis decreed he had died as a martyr for the faith, allowing Angelelli and his companions to be beatified. The beatification of Angelelli and his three companions was celebrated at La Rioja City Park in La Rioja on 27 April 2019. Enrique Angelelli was born to Juan Angelelli and Celina Carletti, two Italian immigrants and devout Catholics, in Córdoba, in 1926. At 15 years old, Angelelli entered the Seminary of Our Lady of Loretto, where he would study humanities and philosophy for the next nine years. In 1947, he travelled to Rome to finish his priestly studies at the Pontifical Pius Latin America College. After being ordained a priest on 9 October 1949, he continued his schooling to attain a degree in Canon law at the Pontifical Gregorian University. Angelelli returned to Córdoba in 1951, when he was appointed cooperating vicar of the San José Parish. He took a role as an advisor to the Catholic Workers Youth (JOC), which ran out of the Cristo Obrero Chapel. On 12 December 1960, Pope John XXIII appointed Angelelli as the auxiliary Bishop of the Archdiocese of Cordoba (Argentina) and the titular Bishop of the Lystra. Fourteen days later, on 26 December, he was named the vicar general. He took over as Archdeacon of the venerable ecclesiastical chapter of the Cathedral Church on 16 February 1961, and was consecrated on 12 March 1961. As the auxiliary bishop, Angelelli became increasingly involved in the involvement and coordination of labor unions. Throughout 1963, after having assisted those in slums for the previous twelve years, Angelelli began calling for campaigns to help those in poverty stricken areas.