Father Julio Meinvielle (31 August 1905 – 2 August 1973) was an
Argentine
Argentines, Argentinians or Argentineans are people from Argentina. This connection may be residential, legal, historical, or cultural. For most Argentines, several (or all) of these connections exist and are collectively the source of their ...
priest and prolific writer. A leading
Roman Catholic Church
The Catholic Church (), also known as the Roman Catholic Church, is the List of Christian denominations by number of members, largest Christian church, with 1.27 to 1.41 billion baptized Catholics Catholic Church by country, worldwid ...
thinker of his time, he was associated with the
far right
Far-right politics, often termed right-wing extremism, encompasses a range of ideologies that are marked by ultraconservatism, authoritarianism, ultranationalism, and Nativism (politics), nativism. This political spectrum situates itself on ...
tendency within Argentine Catholic thinking. As a polemicist he had a strong influence on the development of ''
nacionalismo''.
Background
Meinvielle studied for his Doctorate in
Philosophy
Philosophy ('love of wisdom' in Ancient Greek) is a systematic study of general and fundamental questions concerning topics like existence, reason, knowledge, Value (ethics and social sciences), value, mind, and language. It is a rational an ...
and
Theology
Theology is the study of religious belief from a Religion, religious perspective, with a focus on the nature of divinity. It is taught as an Discipline (academia), academic discipline, typically in universities and seminaries. It occupies itse ...
in
Rome
Rome (Italian language, Italian and , ) is the capital city and most populated (municipality) of Italy. It is also the administrative centre of the Lazio Regions of Italy, region and of the Metropolitan City of Rome. A special named with 2, ...
and soon afterwards became a prolific writer of religious, historical and economic books within the school of
Thomism
Thomism is the philosophical and theological school which arose as a legacy of the work and thought of Thomas Aquinas (1225–1274), the Dominican philosopher, theologian, and Doctor of the Church.
In philosophy, Thomas's disputed ques ...
. He came to see history as a process of decline in Catholic values, as determined by three events that he saw as catastrophic i.e. the work of
Martin Luther
Martin Luther ( ; ; 10 November 1483 – 18 February 1546) was a German priest, Theology, theologian, author, hymnwriter, professor, and former Order of Saint Augustine, Augustinian friar. Luther was the seminal figure of the Reformation, Pr ...
, the
French Revolution and the
October Revolution
The October Revolution, also known as the Great October Socialist Revolution (in Historiography in the Soviet Union, Soviet historiography), October coup, Bolshevik coup, or Bolshevik revolution, was the second of Russian Revolution, two r ...
.
Catholic orthodoxy
Meinvielle was a staunch critic of what he perceived as slipping standards in Catholic teaching. On this basis he had a well publicized feud with
Jacques Maritain during the late 1930s. The conflict had begun in 1936 when Maritain visited Argentina for the first time and was initially well received by a number of leading Catholic figures. Meinvielle attacked Maritain as the 'advocate of the
Spanish Reds', sparking off a war of words between the two. His book ''From Lammenais to Maritain'' was actually an attack on the ideas of Jacques Maritain, claiming that Maritain was defending the faithlessness of modern society by his endorsement of
liberalism
Liberalism is a Political philosophy, political and moral philosophy based on the Individual rights, rights of the individual, liberty, consent of the governed, political equality, the right to private property, and equality before the law. ...
. Tracing the origins of Maritain's work to
Hugues Felicité Robert de Lamennais as well as that of
Marc Sangnier and ''
Le Sillon'', he argued that the
humanism
Humanism is a philosophy, philosophical stance that emphasizes the individual and social potential, and Agency (philosophy), agency of human beings, whom it considers the starting point for serious moral and philosophical inquiry.
The me ...
of these writers was incompatible with the Catholic faith.
He took as the basis for his Catholicism the works of
Thomas Aquinas
Thomas Aquinas ( ; ; – 7 March 1274) was an Italian Dominican Order, Dominican friar and Catholic priest, priest, the foremost Scholasticism, Scholastic thinker, as well as one of the most influential philosophers and theologians in the W ...
and the
Papal encyclicals ''
Rerum novarum
''Rerum novarum'', or ''Rights and Duties of Capital and Labor'', is an encyclical issued by Pope Leo XIII on 15 May 1891. It is an open letter, passed to all Catholic patriarchs, primates, archbishops, and bishops, which addressed the condi ...
'' and ''
Quadragesimo anno
''Quadragesimo anno'' () (Latin for "In the 40th Year") is an encyclical issued by Pope Pius XI on 15 May 1931, 40 years after Leo XIII's encyclical '' Rerum novarum'', further developing Catholic social teaching. Unlike Leo XIII, who addre ...
'', contrasting them with his twin political hates of liberalism and
communism
Communism () is a political sociology, sociopolitical, political philosophy, philosophical, and economic ideology, economic ideology within the history of socialism, socialist movement, whose goal is the creation of a communist society, a ...
.
Antisemitism
He was also critical of
capitalism
Capitalism is an economic system based on the private ownership of the means of production and their use for the purpose of obtaining profit. This socioeconomic system has developed historically through several stages and is defined by ...
and
Marxism
Marxism is a political philosophy and method of socioeconomic analysis. It uses a dialectical and materialist interpretation of historical development, better known as historical materialism, to analyse class relations, social conflict, ...
and he sought to draw parallels between the two by arguing that
materialism
Materialism is a form of monism, philosophical monism according to which matter is the fundamental Substance theory, substance in nature, and all things, including mind, mental states and consciousness, are results of material interactions. Acco ...
was the basis for both. Instead he sought an economic system based on
Roman Catholicism
The Catholic Church (), also known as the Roman Catholic Church, is the List of Christian denominations by number of members, largest Christian church, with 1.27 to 1.41 billion baptized Catholics Catholic Church by country, worldwid ...
in which consumption regulated production and in which wealth creation was fine as long as the wealth was re-invested.
[Sandra McGee Deutsch, ''Las Derechas'', 1999, p. 225] In common with
Rodolfo Irazusta he was a stern critic of
usury
Usury () is the practice of making loans that are seen as unfairly enriching the lender. The term may be used in a moral sense—condemning taking advantage of others' misfortunes—or in a legal sense, where an interest rate is charged in e ...
and he blamed this practice on the
Jew
Jews (, , ), or the Jewish people, are an ethnoreligious group and nation, originating from the Israelites of ancient Israel and Judah. They also traditionally adhere to Judaism. Jewish ethnicity, religion, and community are highly inte ...
s, citing
Werner Sombart Werner may refer to:
People
* Werner (name), origin of the name and people with this name as surname and given name
Fictional characters
* Werner (comics), a German comic book character
* Werner Von Croy, a fictional character in the ''Tomb Rai ...
as his inspiration for this conclusion.
Meinvielle added a strong belief in ''Sinarquia'', a secret society designed to conspire to bring about Jewish domination of the world.
He further contended that
Judaism
Judaism () is an Abrahamic religions, Abrahamic, Monotheism, monotheistic, ethnic religion that comprises the collective spiritual, cultural, and legal traditions of the Jews, Jewish people. Religious Jews regard Judaism as their means of o ...
had the destruction of
Christianity
Christianity is an Abrahamic monotheistic religion, which states that Jesus in Christianity, Jesus is the Son of God (Christianity), Son of God and Resurrection of Jesus, rose from the dead after his Crucifixion of Jesus, crucifixion, whose ...
as its basis and therefore argued that whatever ills befell the Christian world were inherently the fault of the Jews. As part of this critique he repeated the
blood libel as well as suggesting that capitalism and
communism
Communism () is a political sociology, sociopolitical, political philosophy, philosophical, and economic ideology, economic ideology within the history of socialism, socialist movement, whose goal is the creation of a communist society, a ...
were both Jewish constructs as part of their plan for world domination.
[Sandra McGee Deutsch, ''Las Derechas'', 1999, p. 226] Whilst his ideas owed a lot to the ''
Protocols of the Elders of Zion
''The Protocols of the Elders of Zion'' is a fabricated text purporting to detail a Jewish plot for global domination. Largely plagiarized from several earlier sources, it was first published in Imperial Russia in 1903, translated into multip ...
'', Meinvielle did not explicitly endorse that document, as a number of contemporary court cases had found it to be a fraud.
He added a Christological dimension to his anti-Semitism by arguing that the grand struggle between Christianity and Judaism was a parallel to that between
Jesus Christ
Jesus (AD 30 or 33), also referred to as Jesus Christ, Jesus of Nazareth, and many Names and titles of Jesus in the New Testament, other names and titles, was a 1st-century Jewish preacher and religious leader. He is the Jesus in Chris ...
and
Satan
Satan, also known as the Devil, is a devilish entity in Abrahamic religions who seduces humans into sin (or falsehood). In Judaism, Satan is seen as an agent subservient to God, typically regarded as a metaphor for the '' yetzer hara'', or ' ...
.
He did however feel that it was possible to defeat the Jews by unity and, where necessary, violence, drawing on the notions of
Nimio de Anquín that violence in service of 'truth' is justified.
To this end he applauded the rise of
fascism
Fascism ( ) is a far-right, authoritarian, and ultranationalist political ideology and movement. It is characterized by a dictatorial leader, centralized autocracy, militarism, forcible suppression of opposition, belief in a natural social hie ...
, for which he saw a Christian mission.
He was particularly enamoured of the
falangism
Falangism () was the political ideology of three political parties in Spain that were known as the Falange, namely first the Falange Española, the Falange Española de las Juntas de Ofensiva Nacional Sindicalista (FE de las JONS), and afterwa ...
variant as he was a believer in the virtues of
Hispanidad
(, typically translated as "Hispanicity") is a Spanish term describing a shared cultural, linguistic, or political identity among speakers of the Spanish language or members of the Hispanic diaspora. The term can have various, different implicat ...
and
Spain
Spain, or the Kingdom of Spain, is a country in Southern Europe, Southern and Western Europe with territories in North Africa. Featuring the Punta de Tarifa, southernmost point of continental Europe, it is the largest country in Southern Eur ...
playing a leading role in the fortunes of
Latin America
Latin America is the cultural region of the Americas where Romance languages are predominantly spoken, primarily Spanish language, Spanish and Portuguese language, Portuguese. Latin America is defined according to cultural identity, not geogr ...
.
Meinvielle did however feel that the cult of personality surrounding both
Benito Mussolini
Benito Amilcare Andrea Mussolini (29 July 188328 April 1945) was an Italian politician and journalist who, upon assuming office as Prime Minister of Italy, Prime Minister, became the dictator of Fascist Italy from the March on Rome in 1922 un ...
and
Adolf Hitler
Adolf Hitler (20 April 1889 – 30 April 1945) was an Austrian-born German politician who was the dictator of Nazi Germany from 1933 until Death of Adolf Hitler, his suicide in 1945. Adolf Hitler's rise to power, He rose to power as the lea ...
was contrary to Catholicism and the primacy of Christ and so argued that any Argentine version of fascism would have to be avowedly religious and anti-secular. His 1936 book ''El Judio'' distilled these fascist views and gave his thinking an Argentine dimension as he argued
Buenos Aires
Buenos Aires, controlled by the government of the Autonomous City of Buenos Aires, is the Capital city, capital and largest city of Argentina. It is located on the southwest of the Río de la Plata. Buenos Aires is classified as an Alpha− glob ...
was the archetype of '
Babylon
Babylon ( ) was an ancient city located on the lower Euphrates river in southern Mesopotamia, within modern-day Hillah, Iraq, about south of modern-day Baghdad. Babylon functioned as the main cultural and political centre of the Akkadian-s ...
', dominated as he felt it was by international Jewish financial interests.
Politically he was associated with a coterie of young Catholic intellectuals, including
Máximo Etchecopar,
Ignacio Anzoategui and
Matías Sánchez Sorondo, who produced the 1937 document ''Programma Nacionalista''.
He subsequently joined the ''Nueva Politica'' group when Sánchez Sorondo established it in 1941.
[ Philip Rees, '' Biographical Dictionary of the Extreme Right Since 1890'', Simon & Schuster, 1990, p. 261]
Later years
Meinville taught philosophy at Catholic institutions for much of his life and he would also serve as the chaplain at ''Santa Casa de Ejercicios''.
He continued to write widely and from the late 1940s to the 1960s he published three journals, ''Balcon'', ''Dialogo'' and ''Presencia'', in which he expressed his religious and political views.
Meinville initially supported
Edelmiro Julián Farrell and his successor
Juan Perón
Juan Domingo Perón (, , ; 8 October 1895 – 1 July 1974) was an Argentine military officer and Statesman (politician), statesman who served as the History of Argentina (1946-1955), 29th president of Argentina from 1946 to Revolución Libertad ...
, but began to have doubts about
Peronism, feeling that socio-economic concerns had become too prominent at the expense of the initial hard-line nationalism that attracted him.
He was particularly critical of Perón's attempts to woo the
trade union
A trade union (British English) or labor union (American English), often simply referred to as a union, is an organization of workers whose purpose is to maintain or improve the conditions of their employment, such as attaining better wages ...
movement to his side
and subsequently denounced Peron as a
demagogue
A demagogue (; ; ), or rabble-rouser, is a political leader in a democracy who gains popularity by arousing the common people against elites, especially through oratory that whips up the passions of crowds, Appeal to emotion, appealing to emo ...
.
In 1952 Meinvielle became a leading figure in the ''Union Fédérale'', a post-Perón party of the right.
Continuing to be outspoken in his condemnation of those who did not meet his standards, Meinville was finally suspended from the Catholic Church in 1961 by
Antonio Caggiano, the
Archbishop of Buenos Aires, after he stated that President
Arturo Frondizi
Arturo Frondizi Ércoli (Paso de los Libres, October 28, 1908 – Buenos Aires, April 18, 1995) was an Argentine lawyer, journalist, teacher, statesman, and politician. He was elected president of Argentina and governed from May ...
was a communist agent.
[Rees, ''Biographical Dictionary of the Extreme Right'', p. 262] He was also a strong critic of the regime of
Juan Carlos Onganía, claiming that he was acting on behalf of ''Sinarquia''.
In July 1973, Meinvielle was hit by a truck while crossing the road. The driver of the vehicle was the driver of the then mayor of Buenos Aires, the Peronist Leopoldo Frenkel. He was hospitalized for a month at the San Camilo Clinic with multiple fractures and died on 2 August 1973. His funeral mass was celebrated by Archbishop
Juan Carlos Aramburu, and he was eulogized by his disciple,
Carlos Alberto Sacheri, who called him "an exceptional figure." At his funeral procession, one handle of his coffin was carried by
Carlos Mugica, and the other by
Alberto Ezcurra Medrano.
[«Algunas obras del padre Julio Meinvielle (1905-1973)»](_blank)
artículo en el sitio web Junto a Fe (Viva la Falange Española).
Influence
Meinvielle's influence was strong throughout the
far right
Far-right politics, often termed right-wing extremism, encompasses a range of ideologies that are marked by ultraconservatism, authoritarianism, ultranationalism, and Nativism (politics), nativism. This political spectrum situates itself on ...
in Argentina. Practically, he served as advisor and spiritual inspiration to the highly anti-Semitic
Tacuara Nationalist Movement. However, on a wider level he had a deep impact on the
nationalist
Nationalism is an idea or movement that holds that the nation should be congruent with the State (polity), state. As a movement, it presupposes the existence and tends to promote the interests of a particular nation,Anthony D. Smith, Smith, A ...
intellectual strand, with the likes of
José López Rega
José López Rega (17 November 1916 – 9 June 1989) was an Argentine politician who served as Minister of Social Welfare from 1973 to 1975, first under Juan Perón and continuing under Isabel Perón, Juan Perón's third wife and presidential ...
(who shared his belief in the fictitious ''Sinarquia'') and
Jordán Bruno Genta heavily influenced by his words. Other future government figures such as
Mario Amadeo,
Alberto Baldrich and
Samuel Medrano were also influenced by his works to an extent. Similarly Colonel
Mohamed Alí Seineldín, who was arrested in 1987 for plotting a military coup also declared himself a disciple of Meinvielle. The diplomat
Máximo Etchecopar had also written for Meinvielle's journal ''Balcón'' during his formative years.
[Rees, ''Biographical Dictionary of the Extreme Right'', p. 118]
He was also influential on the
Argentine scouting movement as he was founder of the ''
Union Scouts Católicos Argentinos''.
References
{{DEFAULTSORT:Meinvielle, Julio
1905 births
1973 deaths
Antisemitism in Argentina
Argentine fascists
Argentine theologians
20th-century Argentine Roman Catholic priests
Argentine male writers
Argentine conspiracy theorists
Catholicism and far-right politics
Christian fascists
Far-right politics in Argentina
Late modern Christian antisemitism
Roman Catholic conspiracy theorists
Thomists
Pedestrian road incident deaths
Road incident deaths in Argentina