This December 22 will be the 50th anniversary of the martyrdom of Carlos Alberto Sacheri, besieged by a commando of the terrorist group ERP (People's Revolutionary Army), when he was returning from Mass with his family. I do not hesitate to recognize that his death was a martyrdom, fruit of his charity. In the history of the Church there is a history of martyrdom. What makes a martyr such is not the suffering imposed on the martyr, but the charity that impels him to embrace the Cross. Charity, I stress, the agape of the New Testament. The martyr, with Christian fortitude, surrenders to death.
Sacheri knew that his hour was approaching, although in fact the attack came as a surprise. The previous October 28, philosopher Jordán Bruno Genta, a master of Catholic nationalism, had died, also martyred, at the hands of the ERP, as he was leaving his house to go to Mass in a nearby parish. Carlos understood that he was next, a Catholic thinker and patriot, in a country beset by Marxist terrorism, ready to turn Argentina into another Cuba.
Sacheri's charity was exercised in his numerous conferences, both before educated and university audiences, as well as in popular circles. He did not refuse to speak to a small parish group if requested; he was a faithful servant of the Church. His Thomistic inspiration responded to the study of the Angelic Doctor, as a disciple of Father Julio Meinvielle, teacher of generations of young disciples. He also cultivated this philosophical inclination at Laval University in Quebec, Canada, where he got acquainted with another teacher, Charles de Koninck, who came out against the personalist humanism of Jacques Maritain, opposing to it the primacy of the Common Good. Sacheri strengthened this criterion in the study of the Social Doctrine of the Church, developed in the pontifical encyclicals.
Sacheri's written work includes numerous articles and two important books, “The Natural Order” and “The Clandestine Church.” In the former, Thomistic philosophy and juridical inspiration converge with the Social Doctrine of the Church. For St. Thomas, Ordo is equivalent to Veritas; Order and Truth constitute the meaning of reality. The work retains maximum actuality, when constructivist thought eludes or opposes the metaphysical concept of nature.
“The Clandestine Church” focuses on the origins of the ecclesiastical Third Worldism of the 1960s and 1970s, based on a progressive interpretation of the Second Vatican Council. It is interesting to note a reaction of Pope Paul VI, who said: “We were expecting a blossoming spring and a harsh winter came.” Sacheri's work shows the disastrous activity of the self-proclaimed Movement of Priests for the Third World, which was largely inspired by the Medellin documents, the work of an assembly of the Latin American Episcopal Council. It does not omit to name names: of local key players and their European correspondents, the progress of the Catholic-Marxist dialogue, and of the resulting confusion about the social teaching of Catholicism. This work cannot be well seen by an episcopate situated in the “extremist center,”,which detests the “right” and smilingly winks at the left.
Martyrdom must be recognized by the Church in a process of beatification. This is what has been requested of the Bishop of San Isidro, who has not considered it opportune to initiate the consequent process. At the time, I criticized the opinion of the canonist Vicente Llambías, who expressed a contrary opinion. It is opportune now to urge once again that living witnesses be questioned, so that the eventual process does not become a historical cause, which would be more complicated.
The fiftieth anniversary of the martyrdom of Sacheri commits us to divulge his personality and thought, especially among young people, who will be enriched by the example of charity that permeates ecclesial and patriotic activity. A complete edition of his works should be undertaken: the two books, articles not collected in them, and also a translation of his doctoral thesis, written in French, on “The existence and nature of deliberation”.
The dissemination of Sacheri's thought should inspire publications on his career. There is an important book on him (900 pages) by Héctor H. Hernández: “Sacheri. Preach and die for Argentina”.
