Was new pope complicit in Argentina's "dirty war?"
Then-Cardinal Mario Jorge Bergoglio of Argentina -- now Pope Francis -- takes a pause during a press conference at the Vatican, 17 October 2003. /PATRICK HERTZOG/AFP/Getty Images
Almost as soon as Cardinal Jorge Mario Bergoglio was chosen as Pope Francis, charges surfaced that he was to some degree involved in the so-called "dirty war" during the years when Argentina was ruled by a military dictatorship (1976-1983) - a period when the future pope was the head of the Jesuit order in the country.
The dictatorship was notorious for human rights violations. At least 30,000 people were killed by the military, some tossed out of airplanes into the ocean after being tortured. Thousands more were simply tortured as the dictatorship chased "subversives," real and imagined, and moved to stifle any dissent whatsoever.
Aftershocks are still being felt today as the military stole the infant children of kidnapped women who gave birth in captivity and then gave custody of those children to military families after killing the birth mother. Some of those children, now grown, are trying to find out who their real parents were and what happened to them; others prefer not to know.
That brings us to the most serious charge against the new pope - that he was somehow involved in the military's kidnapping of two Jesuit priests who had been organizing the poor. The priests were held for months at a well known torture center inside a Navy School known by its Spanish initials as ESMA.
What is without doubt is that then Father Bergoglio, who at the time headed up the Jesuits in Argentina, lifted church protection from the two a week before their kidnapping because he felt their radical views and activities were no longer in line with Jesuit teaching. It is still not clear if his actions played any role in the priests' kidnapping. Charges that go beyond this and say Bergoglio was actively involved in their kidnapping are simply not backed up by any facts.
Shortly before the 2005 conclave (in which Bergoglio reportedly came in second to Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger in the voting to succeed John Paul II), he was sued by an Argentine lawyer and charged with being in part to blame for the kidnapping. He refused to comment on the charges, which a spokesman labeled "slander," and the suit was eventually dismissed. Some saw the accusations as politically motivated in an attempt to keep him from being chosen as pope at the time.
Bergoglio has since been more outspoken. In his authorized 2010 biography "El Jesuita," he denies any role in the kidnapping and in fact says he interceded to help free the two kidnapped Jesuits as well as helping other victims of the dictatorship. But that's where the case gets murky. Father Orlando Yorio, one of the priests (who died in 2000), is quoted by Argentine journalist Horacio Verbitsky as saying he had "no reason to think he did something for our freedom but rather the opposite."
Monica Mignone, a woman who worked with the two kidnapped priests, was also kidnapped and never seen again. Verbitsky spoke with her mother who he quotes as saying, "the priests were freed by the efforts of (noted human rights lawyer and father of the victim) Emilio Mignone and the intercession of the Vatican, not by the actions of Bergoglio, who betrayed them." Unfortunately there are no documents to provide conclusive proof one way or the other.
This undated picture provided by Haus Gries shows Francisco Jalics at an unknown location in Germany. The Jesuit priest was kidnapped in 1976 by Argentina's military junta when the new pope was the leader of that country.
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AP Photo, HOEP Haus Gries via dpa
On Friday the Reverend Francisco Jalics, one of the two kidnapped priests who is now at a seminary in Germany, put out a statement saying that years after the incident, he had met Bergoglio and the two had "discussed the events."
"Following that, we celebrated Mass publicly together and hugged solemnly. I am reconciled to the events and consider the matter to be closed," he said. Father Yorio, the other kidnapped priest, was critical of Bergoglio, who he felt endangered the two by criticizing their work.
Adolfo Perez Esquivel, the Argentine who won the Nobel Peace Prize for his human rights advocacy in 1980 (while the military was still in power), said on his website that Bergoglio did not work with the dictatorship, but had also not spoken out strongly against it.
"I do not consider that Jorge Bergoglio was complicit in the dictatorship, but I believe he lacked the courage to join our struggle for human rights in the most difficult moments," he wrote after voicing his hope that the new pope "has the courage to defend the rights of the people in the face of the powerful without repeating the serious errors and even sins that the church committed."
Vatican Spokesman Father Federico Lombardi said Friday that the accusations were false and "reveal anti-clerical left-wing elements that are used to attack the Church."
"There has never been a concrete or credible accusation," against the new pope, Lombardi added.
A human rights worker in Argentina who has followed the case closely says that it is important to keep in mind the role that the Argentine church played during the dictatorship. Unlike its counterparts in some other Latin American countries (such as Chile, El Salvador and to a lesser extent, Nicaragua), the church in Argentina was not an outspoken opponent of the dictatorship. Some members of the church actively and publicly collaborated with the military; most were simply passive and did little one way or another.
In the end, we will probably never be able to say for sure exactly what Bergoglio's role was. He was certainly not among the most public defenders of the dictatorship but there's no real way of telling how strongly he resisted. It's a matter of either taking him, or his accusers, at their word. We may not have enough facts to draw conclusions about the new pope's past actions but that situation will change. Now that he holds one of the most public jobs in the world, we will certainly know far more about his future actions.
Editor's Note: This article was updated with a new comment from Adolfo Perez Esquivel March 16, 2013.
With the new pope coming from Argentina, there should be renewed interest in the politics of the Vatican during the 1982 Falklands War. The first ever papal visit to Britain, which had been arranged well in advance, took place in the midst of the Falklands War between Britain and Catholic Argentina. The Vatican was compelled by political necessity to follow the British visit with a hastily arranged papal visit to Argentina, otherwise it risked undermining its Latin American base. The cooperation of the military junta that ruled Argentina from 1976 to 1983 was needed for the latter visit. Suggestions that the Pope cold shouldered the junta during the visit do not match the facts. Two particular photos that appeared in the Catholic press at the time are of particular interest in this regard. These photos are to be found in an article about this fascinating chapter in papal history that reveals a great deal about the Vatican's modus operandi in modern times — http://www.wallsofjericho.info/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=33&Itemid=68
As the immortal Ricky Ricardo was wont to say, Jorge Mario Bergoglio (Pope Francis) has much "splainin" to do. So he sends out his flack, Father Federico Lombardi to red-bait the skeptics who said the critics are, "the anti-clerical left [who] attack the church ...."
During the 1970's and 1980's, Cardinal Bergoglio cast a blind eye at the human rights violations of his pals, the thugs in the government of Argentina in their conduct of their "Dirty War".
And, on April 2, 2012, this morally ignorant partisan Pope Francis memorialized the 30th anniversary of the aggression of the Argentine thugs against the Falkland Islanders: "We come to pray for those who have fallen, sons of the homeland [Argentina] who set out to defend the mother, the homeland, to claim the country that is theirs, and they were usurped."
The natives of the Falkland Islands are usurpers? Pope Francis, you come off as an evil clown.
This historically ignorant, suck-up to the thugs, partisan politician, Pope Francis conveniently overlooks the fact that 99% of the citizens of the Falkland Islands want to keep the same legal status that they have had since the English originated settlement on the islands in the 1690's.
Pope Francis should try to become a spiritual leader rather than an evil cheerleader for the aggressors against the Falkland Islanders in a new Dirty War.
We may never know the true answer to this question. If this man did speak up against the atrocities committed by the Argentine government at that time, he would have been arrested, tortured and finally killed by those monsters who also would have branded him as a "Communist"!
Yeah, kind of like "oh, that sexual abuse scandal about priests is in the past, so get over it and get a life."
Unfortunately, the then-boys (and girls) molested by those priests have had their childhoods permanently stolen. But because it happened more than a week ago, we should all just forget about it and move on.
I am American citizen but was born in Argentina and lived there during most of the dirty war. I follow the politics there and followed the life of the new Pope for many years. Please take a close look of the kind of people who now accuse Pope Francisco, I am certain that you will rule out any wrong doing on his part.
I am not pro church/religion/pope or whatever you are bashing on nowadays.
Buy i cannot bring myself to trust a newsletter who does not even know how to find a country in a map.
Argentina according CBS: http://l2.yimg.com/bt/api/res/1.2/V0mF4pKiHWZGsa2sFm.LWg--/YXBwaWQ9eW5ld3M7cT04NTt3PTYzMA--/http://l.yimg.com/dh/ap/default/130315/ImagenCBS.jpg
Argentina for the rest of the world (people able to read a book/use search engine or with production team with the competence to not let this things get pulished): https://www.google.com.ar/maps/vt/data=Ay5GWBeob_WIPLDYoIWcfVXxvZu9XwJ55OX7Ag,U1zNCquSLDoFi4KeXiiYqwe5iquxmhvVI5F_UFSGuOrQ5m5c31jxhA8o-LLLZyb4-uLR14X1MMeoHKoLfCmg-fW2mxvNPx7ddaPfj-dP96yG-65D2jkVPYuh8YYucg7n_AvIx4BO3w7KarfG0jC4xhvlmslXARO8Fs-G4wZPIWFof44n9PeNpq3NFCWsWw
Why should this surprise anyone? This has never been at all about "god" but always totally about politics.
Bergoglio was not elected pope because anybody had any idea that he could actually "clean up" the catholic church. They don't *want* to be "cleaned up" any more than our own Congress does.
In both organizations, they're all in it together for the goodies. They don't want anybody to change that.
The only important thing, from their perspective, is finding a guy that can keep a straight face when telling the people what they want to hear. (While, at the same time, of course, continuing to insure fellow colleagues that he has absolutely no intentions of derailing the gravy train.)
All this is saying is that there was a connection not a direct cause and effect to the incident. And that connection could have been to the detriment of the two priests. The most important thing is that he lifted church protection because the two priests did not conform to Jesuit teachings. And this is the point, despite appearances of affability and choosing and unused name implying a fresh start-his views like many in the Latin American church are liberal on econpomic justice but ultra co nservative on social issues and the absolute power of the church hierarchy-so yes it remains to be seen what he will be. The Church, Catholic or otherwise changes slowly after all it is not thatlong ago that they fiunally admittred Galileo was correct after all.
So the question becomes did he put Jesuit and Church dogma above what should have been known, by a figure in his position in Argentina at that time, as a threat to the personal safety of the two priests. So it is not an issue of complicity but one of moral judgment.
Stalin, Mao, and Hitler killed more people by far. They were religious?? The News Media doesn't like the Church's teachings on morals so they are trying to discredit the Church by any means possible. That's been tried for the last 2000 years and it hasn't worked. The News Media will be long gone but the Church's teachings will remain intact for all time.
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The first ever papal visit to Britain, which had been arranged well in advance, took place in the midst of the Falklands War between Britain and Catholic Argentina. The Vatican was compelled by political necessity to follow the British visit with a hastily arranged papal visit to Argentina, otherwise it risked undermining its Latin American base.
The cooperation of the military junta that ruled Argentina from 1976 to 1983 was needed for the latter visit. Suggestions that the Pope cold shouldered the junta during the visit do not match the facts. Two particular photos that appeared in the Catholic press at the time are of particular interest in this regard.
These photos are to be found in an article about this fascinating chapter in papal history that reveals a great deal about the Vatican's modus operandi in modern times —
http://www.wallsofjericho.info/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=33&Itemid=68
So he sends out his flack, Father Federico Lombardi to red-bait the skeptics who said the critics are, "the anti-clerical left [who] attack the church ...."
During the 1970's and 1980's, Cardinal Bergoglio cast a blind eye at the human rights violations of his pals, the thugs in the government of Argentina in their conduct of their "Dirty War".
And, on April 2, 2012, this morally ignorant partisan Pope Francis memorialized the 30th anniversary of the aggression of the Argentine thugs against the Falkland Islanders:
"We come to pray for those who have fallen, sons of the homeland [Argentina] who set out to defend the mother, the homeland, to claim the country that is theirs, and they were usurped."
The natives of the Falkland Islands are usurpers?
Pope Francis, you come off as an evil clown.
This historically ignorant, suck-up to the thugs, partisan politician, Pope Francis conveniently overlooks the fact that 99% of the citizens of the Falkland Islands want to keep the same legal status that they have had since the English originated settlement on the islands in the 1690's.
Pope Francis should try to become a spiritual leader rather than an evil cheerleader for the aggressors against the Falkland Islanders in a new Dirty War.
Unfortunately, the then-boys (and girls) molested by those priests have had their childhoods permanently stolen. But because it happened more than a week ago, we should all just forget about it and move on.
Buy i cannot bring myself to trust a newsletter who does not even know how to find a country in a map.
Argentina according CBS: http://l2.yimg.com/bt/api/res/1.2/V0mF4pKiHWZGsa2sFm.LWg--/YXBwaWQ9eW5ld3M7cT04NTt3PTYzMA--/http://l.yimg.com/dh/ap/default/130315/ImagenCBS.jpg
Argentina for the rest of the world (people able to read a book/use search engine or with production team with the competence to not let this things get pulished): https://www.google.com.ar/maps/vt/data=Ay5GWBeob_WIPLDYoIWcfVXxvZu9XwJ55OX7Ag,U1zNCquSLDoFi4KeXiiYqwe5iquxmhvVI5F_UFSGuOrQ5m5c31jxhA8o-LLLZyb4-uLR14X1MMeoHKoLfCmg-fW2mxvNPx7ddaPfj-dP96yG-65D2jkVPYuh8YYucg7n_AvIx4BO3w7KarfG0jC4xhvlmslXARO8Fs-G4wZPIWFof44n9PeNpq3NFCWsWw
Bergoglio was not elected pope because anybody had any idea that he could actually "clean up" the catholic church. They don't *want* to be "cleaned up" any more than our own Congress does.
In both organizations, they're all in it together for the goodies. They don't want anybody to change that.
The only important thing, from their perspective, is finding a guy that can keep a straight face when telling the people what they want to hear. (While, at the same time, of course, continuing to insure fellow colleagues that he has absolutely no intentions of derailing the gravy train.)
The News Media doesn't like the Church's teachings on morals so they are trying to discredit the Church by any means possible. That's been tried for the last 2000 years and it hasn't worked. The News Media will be long gone but the Church's teachings will remain intact for all time.