Names: Parroquia San Patricio
Visiting
Visiting: Not confirmedas of 4 July 2026
A working parish where the annual memorial Mass is said on 4 July; the 50th-anniversary Mass was held on 4 July 2026.
Source: Julieta Villar, A 50 años de la masacre de San Patricio, ACI Prensa (3 Jul 2026), 3 July 2026(opens in a new tab)San Patricio in Belgrano is a parish of the Pallottines, an order that came to Argentina from Ireland to serve Irish immigrants. In the early hours of Sunday 4 July 1976, under the dictatorship, the priests Alfredo Leaden, Alfredo Kelly and Pedro Dufau and the seminarians Salvador Barbeito and Emilio Barletti were killed in the parish house. Kelly, the parish priest, and Leaden were of Irish descent, the Irish Times reported in 2008. Pope Paul VI sent a letter of protest.
The case is unsolved. No one has been convicted as of June 2026. A 2006 charge against members of a naval task group was found unproven on appeal, and the investigation was reopened in 2013. Since 2022 a federal judge has examined a different line of inquiry, and in June 2026 four former police officers were summoned for questioning, Tiempo Argentino reported. Cardinal Bergoglio said the 25th-anniversary Mass in 2001 and authorised a canonisation cause; sources give its opening as 2001, 2005 or 2006.
The parish holds a memorial Mass each 4 July. In 2016 the community walked for the first time from the Espacio Patrick Rice at the former ESMA to the parish. On the 50th anniversary, 4 July 2026, Archbishop Jorge García Cuerva said Mass here, and a memorial exhibition opened at the city legislature. In April 2024 the Pallottines gave Pope Francis a painting of the killings.
Published sources give different versions. Here is each one with its source, and the wording we use.
When the canonisation cause was opened
Opened by Jorge Bergoglio in 2001
Source: Alejandra Dandan, Página/12 (4 Jul 2016), 4 July 2016(opens in a new tab)Authorised in June 2005
Source: Julieta Villar, A 50 años de la masacre de San Patricio, ACI Prensa (3 Jul 2026), 3 July 2026(opens in a new tab)Put on the path to sainthood in 2006
Source: Tom Hennigan, Irish Times, via ABEI Journal (26 Apr 2008), 26 April 2008(opens in a new tab)We say: A canonisation cause is open; sources date its opening to 2001, 2005 or 2006
Who carried out the San Patricio killings
In 2006 a court charged members of a naval task group; the appeals chamber found it unproven that the killers came from the ESMA
Source: Alejandra Dandan, Página/12 (4 Jul 2016), 4 July 2016(opens in a new tab)Since 2022 the federal judge has examined a Federal Police reprisal hypothesis; four former officers were summoned for questioning in June 2026
Source: Tiempo Argentino, Masacre San Patricio: llaman a indagatoria a 4 expolicías (9 Jun 2026), 9 June 2026(opens in a new tab)We say: Unsolved; no one convicted as of June 2026; name no perpetrators
The five, El Periodista, 1985–1976
Three Pallottine priests and two seminarians killed at St Patrick's, Belgrano, on 4 July 1976; the order came from Ireland, the case is unresolved and a canonisation cause is open.
Sources