Von Wernich requests transfer to Devoto to meet Pope Leo XIV
The former police chaplain sentenced to life imprisonment for crimes against humanity has requested transfer from Campo de Mayo. The Catholic Church has never excommunicated him.
Chaplain convicted of 80 offences seeks to approach Pope in November
According to perfil.com, Christian von Wernich, a former chaplain of the Buenos Aires provincial police force and sentenced to life imprisonment for crimes against humanity, has requested to be transferred from the Campo de Mayo facility to Devoto prison. The objective, according to the information released, would be to attempt to meet with Pope Leo XIV during the pontiff's planned visit in November.
Journalist Paula Bistagnino addressed the case on the Ronda de Investigación programme on +Perfil. She recalled that Von Wernich was convicted of 80 offences committed in the context of trials for crimes against humanity, linked to his work alongside General Ramón Camps. "He continues to be a priest of the Catholic Church, because the Catholic Church has not applied any sanction," Bistagnino stated.
The journalist questioned the religious institution's criteria for applying excommunication: "I do not know, there is no reason; 80 crimes against humanity is not sufficient to excommunicate him, what else needs to be done?" She added that, even in the event of excommunication, the priest could continue to celebrate mass, given that he was not formally removed from the Church either.
Bistagnino described the role Von Wernich occupied within the police structure and recounted a visit she made to the current Buenos Aires Ministry of Security. According to her account, the building preserves a central courtyard with offices around it—similar to a prison—where there would have been detained persons. There is an altar there, and over that space there are complaints that people were tortured and that the former chaplain blessed the torturers.
The journalist also established a comparison between the institutional response of the Church to different types of offences, although she clarified that she did not intend to rank them: "I understand that for the Catholic Church perhaps the abuse of children is more serious than torture and murder. I am not, of course, putting a competition there."
Source: Google News AR — Buenos Aires