Press, Traditionalist Catholicism and Ecclesial Conflict

The Role of the Newspaper El Sol De La Rioja in the Delegitimization of the Renewal Pastoral Approach of Bishop Enrique Angelelli (1972–1976)

Abstract

This article analyzes the role of the newspaper El Sol de La Rioja in constructing negative representations of Enrique Angelelli's pastoral work during the early 1970s. Through an examination of editorials, opinion columns, and news coverage, it studies the strategies by which the newspaper -linked to sectors of right-wing nationalism and traditionalist Catholicism- presented the bishop and his pastoral team as agents of “Marxist infiltration” and responsible for social unrest. The work focuses particularly on the "Coastal Conflict" (1973), a period in which El Sol acted as an amplifier for groups opposed to the diocesan pastoral work, legitimizing their denunciations and acts of harassment. The analysis engages with debates on the provincial and national press and the construction of the internal enemy, as well as with studies on the intra-ecclesial tensions that arose after the Second Vatican Council and Medellín. It is argued that El Sol acted as an actor capable of articulating economic, political, and territorial interests, contributing to the public delegitimization of Angelelli and the consolidation of a persecutory narrative that permeated La Rioja society in the period leading up to 1976.