The San Luis Gonzaga parish and the San Francisco de Asis school, in Villa Elisa / archive
The management of the priests of Miles Christi in the San Francisco de Asís school and its San Luis Gonzaga parish, in Villa Elisa, has been plagued by conflict since its inception, 20 years ago. This is the congregation that was recently separated from the administration of that educational institution, which will remain in charge of the Archdiocese.
Recognized in La Plata in 1994, the order of the “Militia of Christ”, which integrates one of the most orthodox lines of the Church, landed at the college in 2001 sent by the then prelate Héctor Aguer. And from the beginning of the following school year, the convulsion took over the institution, causing cross complaints, mobilizations and the exodus of an important group of boys to other schools.
One of the controversies unleashed in those years occurred when a Catechism teacher and union delegate denounced her dismissal and a group of teachers initiated forceful measures for her reinstatement.
Later the tension would grow until parents, teachers, managers and religious faced each other, escalating to climates of exaltation, shouting and confrontations between parents and managers, excesses, the regular suspension of classes, bomb threats and cross complaints at the 12th police station in Villa Elisa.
“For an education without discrimination, against impunity and authoritarianism and for an open school”, read the slogans of the marches to the headquarters of the Archbishopric in Plaza Moreno, led by assemblies of parents who rejected the conservative style of the priestly group and claimed the Franciscan tradition of the school.
They also denounced the discrimination of women against men, the inquiry into the political orientations of the students’ parents and the dissemination of anti-abortion material, which the parents considered “inappropriate” for the age of the children.
But there were also complaints by the priests for intimidation, breaking glass in doors and windows by unknown persons, incidents that they related to that conflict. In this context, by October of that year, the parents affirmed that more than a hundred boys had withdrawn from the institution. In another case, a complaint was also made for “discrimination” by a father who was denied the re-registration of his daughters after a protest that was intercepted by then Archbishop Héctor Aguer. The prelate had to change authorities on more than one occasion in search of harmony in the institution and defending the permanence of the religious.
Added to the controversial background in the educational management of San Francisco in 2020 was the expulsion of the founder of the Miles Christi Institute, Roberto Juan Yannuzzi, after having been found guilty in the canonical process of “crimes against the sixth commandment with adults, acquittal of the accomplice and abuse of authority. The accusations that affected the religious, initiated by the members of the order themselves, resulted in the clerical resignation, ordered by the Holy See.
“After a rigorous and exhaustive investigation and collecting the pertinent testimonies, the new authorities of Miles Christi, together with the Archbishop of La Plata, carried out the process of expulsion of Yannuzzi from the religious Institute, a process that the Holy See took directly to its position and reached the present opinion”, concluded that text. Now, as the La Plata Archbishopric decided, they will no longer be in charge of San Francisco.
