Veterans attend services marking 40th anniversary of South Atlantic War

A very moving ecumenical service took place at the St John the Baptist Anglican Cathedral last Sunday, March 6, to mark the upcoming 40th anniversary of the 1982 South Atlantic War. One of several events organised by the Catholic NGO La Fe del Centurion, the event brought together Argentine and British veterans from the conflict.

Both national anthems were sung heartily inside the packed cathedral by an audience that included British Ambassador Kirsty Hayes, the Roman Catholic military bishops of both nations, Monsignor Santiago Olivera and Reverend Paul Mason, as well as several members of the Argentine Armed Forces.

Argentine veteran Luis Puga and Englishman Geoffrey Cardozo addressed those present; Cardozo is well known in the community as soon after the war he was entrusted with the task of picking up the bodies of the Argentine fallen and burying them at Darwin Cemetery.

On Monday morning, further joint commemorations took place at the National Gendarmerie School in Mercedes and the day ended with a Mass at the Basilica of Our Lady of Luján, which Ambassador Hayes described as “a meeting that I will never forget and that deeply touched my heart.”

Maybe the greatest definition of the events that took place this last week was given at the Anglican Cathedral by Cardozo himself, who said: “This meeting is in search of peace and reconciliation. Let it be a first step and let us be the instruments of that peace.”

Amen to that.