Yikes. Bergoglio and Argentina's "Dirty War".

[cali]

the following article excerpts are from a 2011 piece

<snip>

As it happens, in the week before Christmas in the city of Córdoba Videla and some of his military and police cohorts were convicted by their country's courts of the murder of 31 people between April and October 1976, a small fraction of the killings they were responsible for. The convictions brought life sentences for some of the military. These were not to be served, as has often been the case in Argentina and neighbouring Chile, in comfy armed forces retirement homes but in common prisons. Unsurprisingly there was dancing in the city's streets when the judge announced the sentences.

What one did not hear from any senior member of the Argentine hierarchy was any expression of regret for the church's collaboration and in these crimes. The extent of the church's complicity in the dark deeds was excellently set out by Horacio Verbitsky, one of Argentina's most notable journalists, in his book El Silencio (Silence). He recounts how the Argentine navy with the connivance of Cardinal Jorge Bergoglio, now the Jesuit archbishop of Buenos Aires, hid from a visiting delegation of the Inter-American Human Rights Commission the dictatorship's political prisoners. Bergoglio was hiding them in nothing less than his holiday home in an island called El Silencio in the River Plate. The most shaming thing for the church is that in such circumstances Bergoglio's name was allowed to go forward in the ballot to chose the successor of John Paul II. What scandal would not have ensued if the first pope ever to be elected from the continent of America had been revealed as an accessory to murder and false imprisonment.

<snip>

http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/belief/2011/jan/04/argenitina-videla-bergoglio-repentance

[hedgehog]

1. .

[hedgehog]

8. Some side information:

http://www.mosquitonet.com/~prewett/ncrsep96.html

How ironic considering:








SOurce:https://www.trinitystores.com/store/art-image/four-church-women-el-salvador

[struggle4progress]

59. But see my #48 below

#48

[rgbecker]

91. They've taken it all back now that he's the Pope.

From your link:

• This article was amended on 14 March 2013. The original article, published in 2011, wrongly suggested that Argentinian journalist Horacio Verbitsky claimed that Cardinal Jorge Bergoglio connived with the Argentinian navy to hide political prisoners on an island called El Silencio during an inspection by human rights monitors. Although Verbitsky makes other allegations about Bergoglio's complicity in human rights abuses, he does not make this claim. The original article also wrongly described El Silencio as Bergoglio's "holiday home". This has been corrected.

[dpbrown]

94. As usual, the 'correction' goes unnoticed...

It may be a good thing to have a Pope from South America.

[riverbendviewgal]

2. Pretty sad, another not so hot pope

he is an old man and guilty of past sins Terrible sins

[sabrina 1]

3. This is bad news.

[Brickbat]

4. Disgusting and unsurprising.

But perhaps more will realize that this is less about doing God's work on Earth and more about rewarding rich old guys who support a rich old guy regime, over and over and over again.

[Tierra_y_Libertad]

5. Good catch. Thanks for posting.

[bullwinkle428]

6. Wow. Sounds like this guy might end up making Ratzinger

(and his "Hitler Youth" past) look like an absolute Mouseketeer in comparison.

[Dawson Leery]

7. k/r

[GeorgeGist]

9. Ouch!

[UTUSN]

10. More reporting from Univision:

(Pluses?) and minuses:

* Is a "strict doctrinaire"
* the Dirty War thing
* Denounced Gay rights law in Argentina (first one in L. America), called it "the devil's work" & declared "God's war"
* Was 2nd behind Ratz in the voting last time (thought it was secret)
* Ratz elevated him to a prestigious spot (outreach to L. America?), sign of favor
* First Jesuit

(Does it sound like Ratz picked him?)


File under "Other":

* Very oriented toward the poor
* Humble, "saintly," eschewed the episcopal palace, lived in simple little apartment, cooked for self, no servants, rode public transportation
* Ruled to minister to single mothers
* 76 yrs old, like they want to do this over in another 5 yrs or so
* Jesuit picked name of Francis, Francis/poverty/Franciscans

[UTUSN]

72. Visibility n/t

[mitchtv]

80. a jesuit picking Francis to me sounds

more like Francis Xavier, but who am I to doubt the conventional wisdom?

[Judi Lynn]

11. So glad you brought this to D.U.'ers' attention. It should not be swept under the rug. n/t

[kjackson227]

12. Wow! How in the world did they...

come to the conclusion to vote for this man? Surely, they knew his history.

[Smarmie Doofus]

13. Sounds like he's got some 'splainin' to do.

Not a surprise.

If he weren't "dirty" they wouldn't have picked him.

The more things change......

[SoCalDem]

14. There are no truly clean hands whevever war is the issue

The UK and Argentina have widely differing opinions of that "war"..

Ms Iron Petticoats was very Reaganesque with the Falklands..

St. Ronnie had Grenada
George the 1st had Panama
George the lesser had Iraq/Iran

Truth is always the first casualty of war..

If you read the UK papers, you get their version

The Anglican church has never been a big fan of the Pope...any pope

[Tierra_y_Libertad]

15. They're talking about the "Dirty War" against their own people. Not the Falklands war.

[boilerbabe]

16. this is about the "dirty war" not the falkland islands situation.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dirty_War

[cali]

17. Uh. No. The horrors of Argentina's Dirty War are indisputable

The Dirty War (Spanish: Guerra Sucia) (Part of Operation Condor) was a period of state terrorism in Argentina and urban and rural guerrilla warfare[1][2]aiming at political groups who wanted to install a Socialist government in Argentina[3]during the 1970s. Victims of the violence included several thousand left-wing activists and militants, including trade unionists, students, journalists, Marxists, Peronist guerrillas[4]and alleged sympathizers.[5]Some 10,000 of the "disappeared" were admittedly guerrillas of the Montoneros (MPM), and the Marxist People's Revolutionary Army (ERP).[6][7][8]The guerrillas on their part, were responsible for causing at least 6,000 casualties among the civilian population and the military and police forces according to a National Geographic Magazine publication in the mid-1980s.[9]

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dirty_War

[SoCalDem]

18. whoops.. wrong war.. mea culpa.. that said, priests are politicians

nothing surprises me.. they take sides.. often the wrong ones

I guess Catholics will endure this pope like they(we) always have..

and so it goes.

[Gravitycollapse]

19. Wow.

[Solly Mack]

20. K&R

and people wonder why I'm so cynical.

[Gravitycollapse]

21. This story cannot be allowed to drop off the first page.

[pnwmom]

24. Why? It's just a story that has never been confirmed.

Do you believe it because someone wrote a book?

[Gravitycollapse]

26. The story has been confirmed. People were tried.

The complicity of the church is undeniable.

[pnwmom]

28. "People were tried." So? Jorge Bergoglio wasn't part of any trial; and, whether you agree or not,

he had an answer to these claims:


“Bergoglio contended to writer Sergio Rubin that he hid these people to keep them from the violent military junta, not the Human Rights Commission — even as his Jesuit order and Church leaders publicly endorsed the dictatorship.

“He later said the endorsement was one of political pragmatism, which is understandable in the face of certain death, if not exactly righteous, according to the AP.”


Read more: http://www.businessinsider.com/pope-francis-has-links-to-dirty-war-2013-3#ixzz2NSW1kFFo

[Gravitycollapse]

33. Kind of a convenient excuse, isn't it?

He is part of an organization that was proven to be complicit with mass murderers and a dictatorship. He put political prisoners in his home when human rights organizations visited. And you want me to believe he was doing it for their own good?

I might buy it if there was a historical record of him openly rejecting the atrocities of his country's government.

[pnwmom]

36. Neither of us knows the truth. The story was completely one-sided.

I think it is reasonable to assume that he was doing what he said he was: trying to protect them (they were Jesuit priests, by the way.)

[OldDem2012]

46. Right. Just like the Catholic Church didn't help the Nazis during WWII...

....and didn't turn their backs on all of the children abused by who knows how many priests and other church officials.

Those stories were "one-sided", too.

[gateley]

57. I've actually read some alternative opinions on Pius and the Nazis, but the anti-Nazi

belief has become widespread and unquestionable. I can see the argument for both sides of the "truth", so who knows?

No one claimed they didn't turn their backs on those abused by the church's powerful -- I think it's accepted fact that they DID turn their backs, didn't care about the victims AND participated in the coverup.

[gateley]

55. I've read he was on the outs with the Jesuits at times -- maybe this was one of those times?

From what I've read of him, it seems plausible that he was trying to keep them from the junta.

And yet, from what I've read of him, I'm surprised he's so inflexible on gay rights, so who knows?

[pnwmom]

60. You know the Lenten ritual of foot washing? He washed the feet of HIV patients.

Not something every Cardinal would do.

So I'm hoping he's more sensitive in these areas than we would think. But I don't really expect any big change. Time will tell.

[gateley]

61. I also saw him washing the feet of mothers in some kind of maternity hospital.

Really walking the talk! I'm humbled by HIS humility, but I don't expect any big changes either, sadly.

[CentristLiberal]

22. Absolutely sickening

The Catholic Church, and its members, have no decency or sense of the evil they are complicit with. "Accessory to murder."

[amuse bouche]

31. Yep

and we need to keep pounding away, otherwise it will never stop

[DisgustipatedinCA]

23. Somehow, Nazi child marching games seem less important all of a sudden

Maybe next time around they can find one of Stalin's descendants to take the job.

[derby378]

25. K&R for the "Dirty War"

If true, WHY is this man now Pope Francis I?!?

[formercia]

34. Because he is another member of the Ratzinger Junta

and Ratso needed someone he knew would protect him from prosecution.

I was afraid he would be elected, having read about his past.

[xtraxritical]

27. This is not a sentence and makes no sense...

" As it happens, in the week before Christmas in the city of Córdoba Videla and some of his military and police cohorts were convicted by their country's courts of the murder of 31 people between April and October 1976, a small fraction of the killings they were responsible for " So I'm not bothering to try and decipher the rest. If you can't proof read your posts I'm not reading them.

[formercia]

32. Spanish does not follow English syntax

To edit the words, as translated might create a bias. I say, leave it as it is.

Perhaps you should learn another language to appreciate the fact that English is not the only language spoken on this Planet.

[cali]

38. Yeah, but this was written by a British journalist

[formercia]

40. Translated from Spanish. n/t

[cali]

42. uh, it's not in quotation marks.

It's not translated.

[xtraxritical]

88. Perhaps you should brush up on your snark it's pretty lame.

[NYC Liberal]

52. How is it not a sentence?

[Luminous Animal]

76. Yep. It is grammatically incorrect but certainly readable.

[xtraxritical]

101. Where's the subject? A sentence requires subject, noun, verb.

" As it happens, in the week before Christmas in the city of Córdoba Videla and some of his (?) military and police cohorts were convicted..." It's not "readable" when there is no subject. The point is, why don't you take the time to read what you type before you post it?

[amuse bouche]

29. Marcos from DailyKos tweeted about this

Pretty disgusting

[pnwmom]

30. To be fair, they should have reported Jorge Bergoglio's response to these claims:

“Bergoglio contended to writer Sergio Rubin that he hid these people to keep them from the violent military junta, not the Human Rights Commission — even as his Jesuit order and Church leaders publicly endorsed the dictatorship.

“He later said the endorsement was one of political pragmatism, which is understandable in the face of certain death, if not exactly righteous, according to the AP.”


Read more: http://www.businessinsider.com/pope-francis-has-links-to-dirty-war-2013-3#ixzz2NSW1kFFo

[cali]

35. Bergoglio endorsed a murderous regime. Even if that was all he did

it's utterly contemptible.

[pnwmom]

39. What constituted his "endorsement"? n/t

[cali]

41. did you not read what you posted?

He said he endorsed it. You do know what the word means, right?

Jaysus.

[pnwmom]

43. I think you need to read more carefully.

Try again. HE didn't say HE endorsed them. The writer said that unnamed Jesuits and Church leaders were endorsing them.

[cali]

50. oh for fuck's sake. He admitted that the church which he was a leader in endorsed

the regime. split hairs, count angels on pin tops, whatthefuckever, but frankly, I find your desperate defense here, pathetic as hell.

[formercia]

37. So, what hapened to the people he hid at his estate?

My guess is that none of them survived.

[pnwmom]

44. Apparently he saved some lives.

I'm not saying he didn't have major failures -- and failings. I'm sure he did. But in times of war, and under authoritarian regimes, morality is often not as black and white as we would wish it to be.

He's no Archbishop Romero. But Romero is dead.

http://www.thestar.com/news/world/pope/2013/03/13/pope_francis_i_cardinal_jorge_bergoglio_first_pope_from_americas_austere_jesuit.html

At least two cases directly involved Bergoglio. One examined the torture of two of his Jesuit priests — Orlando Yorio and Francisco Jalics — who were kidnapped in 1976 from the slums where they advocated liberation theology. Yorio accused Bergoglio of effectively handing them over to the death squads by declining to tell the regime that he endorsed their work. Jalics refused to discuss it after moving into seclusion in a German monastery.

Both men were freed after Bergoglio took extraordinary, behind-the-scenes action to save them — including persuading dictator Jorge Videla’s family priest to call in sick so that he could say Mass in the junta leader’s home, where he privately appealed for mercy. His intervention likely saved their lives, but Bergoglio never shared the details until Rubin interviewed him for the 2010 biography.

Bergoglio — who ran Argentina’s Jesuit order during the dictatorship — told Rubin that he regularly hid people on church property during the dictatorship, and once gave his identity papers to a man with similar features, enabling him to escape across the border. But all this was done in secret, at a time when church leaders publicly endorsed the junta and called on Catholics to restore their “love for country” despite the terror in the streets.

Rubin said failing to challenge the dictators was simply pragmatic at a time when so many people were getting killed, and attributed Bergoglio’s later reluctance to share his side of the story as a reflection of his humility.

[OldDem2012]

47. He's a coward at the very least. nt.

[pnwmom]

49. So everyone who isn't a martyr is a coward.

More black and white thinking.

I suppose you would have been the martyr, like Romero. I'm not confident I would have been.

[OldDem2012]

70. A man who is now the head of a very large religious organization should have more moral courage....

...than he's shown so far. If that's viewing the world in black and white, so be it.

[pnwmom]

71. None of us know the details of what he was facing there.

Why do you pretend we do?

[OldDem2012]

74. Hmmm. Sounds like you're the resident apologist for the Popes....

....that's excellent job security, isn't it?

[pnwmom]

75. Sounds like you're making a personal attack

because you have nothing better to offer.

You don't have any inside information on what decisions Jorge Borgoglio was faced with.

[OldDem2012]

78. LOL. Wow. "A personal attack"? Really?? Please give me a break!....

....Just FYI, but I don't do personal attacks. I've had one post hidden out of more than 3200 posts, and I still don't know why that one got axed.

Where there's smoke, there's fire, and there's plenty of it coming from the direction of the new Pope. If you don't want to believe it, that's fine, but don't get all bent out of shape if other posters don't go along with it.

[pnwmom]

79. You think because you used a four syllable word it's not a personal attack?

Instead of addressing the point I made, you made it personal.

Because you couldn't think of anything better.

[OldDem2012]

99. Send in an alert and let's put it to a vote. Then post the results. Thanks. nt.

[whistler162]

96. So you believe Schindler and Chiune Sugihara

where cowards!

[OldDem2012]

98. Could you rewrite your post so that I can understand what you're trying to say? Thanks. nt.

[gateley]

58. Exactly. Never as cut and dried as those not directly involved think it should be.

But we sure do love to judge and condemn!

[hedgehog]

66. I think sometimes the morality is more black and white during authoritarian regimes -

it's just that the cost of doing the right thing is higher. As you noted, Romero is dead.

On the other hand - where was this man and all the other bishops when the Mothers of the Plazo de Mayo were out there risking their lives publicly challenging the junta? Some of them were murdered by the generals.

He may have spoken up for two of his Jesuit priests, but what of the thousands of other Catholics who were "disappeared"?

I am disturbed by this, but more so by some articles suggesting he thought the junta was needed.

We will have to see how he behaves in office. But someone who took the safe path and hasn't asked forgiveness for that doesn't have much moral authority.

[pnwmom]

67. He wasn't ever one of my favorites. But as you say, we shall see.

I'm hoping he will grow in the office.

[Lithos]

45. Rats

Was hoping it was for St. Francis of Sinatra....

[struggle4progress]

48. Facts matter. In 1979, at the time of the alleged IAHRC incident, Bergoglio was neither a Cardinal

nor even an Archbishop. He became a bishop in 1992 and a cardinal in 1998. In 1979, he seems to have been the director of a religious teaching institution. In 1979, the island of El Silencio may indeed have been the site for Sunday retreats by the Archbishop of Buenos Aires, but the Archbishop then was Juan Carlos Aramburu

Hugh O'Shaughnessy has been exceedingly sloppy in his claims

[Delphinus]

53. Thank you for sharing this.

Not sure I would have researched that far to have found that out.

[moobu2]

83. Yeah, never mind the post was completely based on a false premise.

The poster was disputing things no one ever even claimed was true which. The poster seemed to give the false impression that the writer of the article was sloppy with facts when that wasn't true at all.

[struggle4progress]

104. Actually, I was disputing this sentence in the article linked by the OP:

... Horacio Verbitsky, one of Argentina's most notable journalists, in his book El Silencio (Silence). He recounts how the Argentine navy with the connivance of Cardinal Jorge Bergoglio, now the Jesuit archbishop of Buenos Aires, hid from a visiting delegation of the Inter-American Human Rights Commission the dictatorship's political prisoners. Bergoglio was hiding them in nothing less than his holiday home in an island called El Silencio in the River Plate ...

The Guardian has now retracted that claim:

... This article was amended ... The original article ... wrongly suggested that Argentinian journalist Horacio Verbitsky claimed that Cardinal Jorge Bergoglio connived with the Argentinian navy to hide political prisoners on an island called El Silencio during an inspection by human rights monitors. Although Verbitsky makes other allegations about Bergoglio's complicity in human rights abuses, he does not make this claim. The original article also wrongly described El Silencio as Bergoglio's "holiday home" ... http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/belief/2011/jan/04/argenitina-videla-bergoglio-repentance

I accept your forthcoming thanks for my recent hard work on this, and I look forward to the day in which you yourself begin to believe in the importance of historical accuracy

[gateley]

56. People won't care -- they want to jump on him for some reason.

I'm neutral and even if I weren't, my outrage or lack thereof means nothing.

[hedgehog]

63. I don't know what to think at this point. Both sides in the Dirty War

were Catholics. The Institutional Church in Argentina did not take the stand it did in El Salvador, that much is clear.


Not to say that there weren't any brave Catholics at the time:

[moobu2]

81. You do realize you completely missunderstood what was in Hugh O'Shaughnessy's article don't you?

What you are talking about is a quote from a book titled El Silencio, written by Horacio Verbitsky. Horacio Verbitsky wrote El Silencio in 2005. In 2005 Mr. Verbitsky was not saying Cardinal Jorge Bergoglio, now Pope Francis, was Archbishop at the time the incident occurred in the 1970's. Mr. Verbitsky was saying Cardinal Jorge Bergoglio, who is now Pope Francis, was the Jesuit archbishop of Buenos Aires in 2005 the year he told the story and the year he wrote the book. And, Pope Francis was indeed Jesuit archbishop of Buenos Aires in 2005.

Yes, facts do matter and it looks like it was you who has "been exceedingly sloppy" with them.

[struggle4progress]

82. I found an article by Verbitsky, making the claim:

... El mismo Grasselli vendió al grupo de tareas de la ESMA en enero de 1979 la isla "El silencio", del Arzobispado de Buenos Aires, donde Aramburu comía sus asados de fin de semana, para que allí se alojara un grupo de prisioneros de modo que la Comisión Interamericana de Derechos Humanos no los encontrara cuando inspeccionara las instalaciones militares ...
http://www.pagina12.com.ar/1999/99-11/99-11-28/pag11.htm

... Grasselli himself sold the island "Silence", where the Archbishop Aramburu of Buenos Aires ate his weekend meals, to ESMA in January 1979, so they could hide there a group of prisoners from the American Commission on Human Rights when it inspected military facilities ...

So this story might involve a prior Archbishop Aramburu, but I see no obvious connection to Bergoglio

Apparently the Guardian's columnist garbled Verbitsky's claim

[moobu2]

86. Ok

[littlemissmartypants]

51. #goodoldboysnetwork. eom

[asjr]

54. Don't cry for him Argentina! (couldn't help myself)

[Agony]

62. there is nothing outstanding about him, that much is clear. Pope - whatever.

"The concept of “complete memory” supported by Cardinal Bergoglio “runs along these lines: reconciliation must be brought about in Argentine society by acknowledging that crimes were committed on both sides,” said Mallimaci.

In the cardinal’s view, he explained, “if only one side is going to be tried, that is because the country is now ruled by a government of the Montoneros” leftwing guerrillas, which the far right insists on associating with President Cristina Fernández and her predecessor and husband Néstor Kirchner.

Bergoglio was criticised for his behaviour during the dictatorship by different religious orders, including the Society of Jesus (Jesuits), to which he belongs.

Since the return to democracy, the cardinal has protested against “impunity” and “revanchism” or political retaliation against the military’s performance during the dictatorship, and has sent friendly messages to far-right organisations that say the dictatorship’s state terrorism was needed to combat “Marxist” guerrillas."
http://www.ipsnews.net/2010/02/argentina-torture-priest-still-celebrating-mass-behind-bars/

[amuse bouche]

64. Michael Moore and Robet Parry have some questions about the new pope's involvement in the dirty war

‘Dirty War’ Questions for Pope Francis
March 13, 2013

Exclusive: The U.S. “news” networks bubbled with excitement over the selection of Argentine Cardinal Jorge Bergoglio to be Pope Francis I. But there was silence on the obvious question that should be asked about any senior cleric from Argentina: What was Bergoglio doing during the “dirty war,” writes Robert Parry.

By Robert Parry

If one wonders if the U.S. press corps has learned anything in the decade since the Iraq War – i.e. the need to ask tough question and show honest skepticism – it would appear from the early coverage of the election of Pope Francis I that U.S. journalists haven’t changed at all, even at “liberal” outlets like MSNBC.

http://consortiumnews.com/2013/03/13/dirty-war-questions-for-pope-francis/

[idwiyo]

65. K&R well, from papa young nazi to papa adult criminal is just one step.

[Peace Patriot]

68. Nope, I'm not buying this story...yet. Too sloppy. Not proven.

Never been in a situation (as a young person) where my friends and colleagues are disappearing and I may be the next to disappear. This story is much too sloppy and inaccurate for me to condemn someone, even a Pope, for complicity in the Dirty War, when he might well have been in a position that looked like he was but he wasn't.

You don't think the Guardian publishes sloppy, biased, poorly written and even outright lying articles? Try Rory Carroll's articles on Hugo Chavez.

Before we condemn someone for being "caught in the middle" in a nazi torture and murder horror, such as Argentina during the Dirty War, we should go watch the movie "Schindler's List" again. You gotta choose who lives, who dies--no other choice. Try that some time. That alone could break you. You gotta play your part right, all the time. You gotta hide your feelings, totally. You gotta swallow atrocities, insults, thuggery, harrowings of your conscience. You gotta nod at lies, for hours and hours, days, weeks. You gotta lie, almost all the time. You gotta stifle your fear, all the time. If you want to save anybody.

I'm more inclined to believe that of Pope Francis--hiding people, playing a role--than that he was complicit, especially since the people he hid were Jesuits (natural affinity). (It shouldn't matter but of course it does, as to believability with not enough reliable information.) But I DON'T KNOW. This article does not convince me, at all, that he was complicit. That's a very serious charge. I refuse to take it lightly just because he's now the Pope.

It smells like sensationalism and it sure reads like it.

Need to know more--from more reliable sources.

[HuckleB]

69. He wasn't young.

[OldDem2012]

77. Well, sounds like you're among the vast majority of people who....

...refuse to believe bad things are taking place (or have already taken place) until it's much too late to do anything about them.

Things like the Armenian Massacre, the Holocaust, the Killing Fields of Cambodia, My Lai, the massacre of the Indians in Central America, Abu Ghraib, Sandusky, and many other events far too numerous to list.

I'm old enough to have seen enough bad things to have very little trust that people are going to do the right thing, especially those in leadership roles who preach one thing and do another. Where there's smoke, there's almost always fire.

[CRH]

92. Thank You for your post, ...

I'm not Catholic and have no emotional or religious attachment to the contentions being made here. However I do see a lot of people willing to condemn without much sourcing, or the realization, sometime in extreme hostile environments people act below the currents rather than drawing attention to situations presenting no good alternatives. Your example of Schlinder was spot on. I need more before I'm willing to base a decision on this information.

[BlueCheese]

73. Without commenting too much on this particular issue...

There's a famous quote about people automatically accepting statements that support their opinion, but are extremely skeptical of facts that contradict it.

Before we decide that the assertions in this column are true, we should see if there is corroborating evidence, and if those accused dispute it. The process for accepting or rejecting accusations should be independent of whether we want them to be true.

[Comrade Grumpy]

84. At the least, this should lead to a review of the Church's role in the dirty war.

[Judi Lynn]

87. Like the one called the "Torture Priest"?

July 26, 2007
The Torture Priest: "Come On, Son, Confess Everything So They Stop Torturing You!"
Argentina’s "Dirty War" Crimes Trial
by MARIE TRIGONA

Former Chaplin Christian Von Wernich wore a priest’s collar and bulletproof vest as he sat behind reinforced glass in a federal court. The court clerk read charges accusing him of collaborating with state security agents and covering up crimes in seven deaths, 31 cases of torture, and 42 cases of illegal imprisonment. He answered basic court questions but refused to testify in the case, stating, "Following the advice of Dr. Jerollini who is my lawyer. I am not going to make a declaration. And I am not going to accept questions."

An estimated 30,000 people were killed during the military junta’s reign of terror. As his trial began, hundreds of human rights activists stood outside the courtroom in the city of La Plata to decry Von Wernich as a murderer. President Nestor Kirchner traveled to La Plata and said during a speech that Von Wernich "brought dishonor to the Church, to poor people, and to human rights."

At least 120 witnesses are slated to testify against Von Wernich and the court has taken precautions to protect their safety, putting up police fences around the courthouse and installing metal detectors. In the front row of the courtroom’s audience, representatives from the human rights organization Mothers of Plaza de Mayo sat with their white headscarves listening to the court’s accusations.

According to Nora Cortinas, president of the Mothers of Plaza de Mayo’s founding chapter, the Catholic Church supported the crimes committed during the dictatorship.

More:
http://www.counterpunch.org/2007/07/26/argentina-s-quot-dirty-war-quot-crimes-trial/

[center]
[font size=1]Police chaplain Christian Von Wernich was
convicted in 2008 of particpating in abductions,
torture and murders during the Dirty War. In
court he told the surviving torture victims who
gave evidence that they were tools of the devil.[/font][/center]

The chaplains and the “death flights”

New evidence is coming to light about the role of state-funded chaplains in supporting the Argentine junta's reign of terror from 1976 to 1983. Chaplains in the police and the military reassured those who were haunted by the screams of the people they abducted, tortured and murdered — and helped them carry on. One chaplain has even been convicted for particpating in these crimes.

~snip~
All levels of the military chaplaincy urged cooperation with the junta and provided religious reasons for doing so. The evidence is massive and this is merely a small selection:

● The head of the military chaplaincy, Archbishop Adolfo Servando Tortolo had a long meeting with the junta on the very day of the 1976 coup that launched the Dirty War. As he left the meeting Tortolo urged the population to "cooperate in a positive way" with the new government. [8]

● Bishop Emilio Graselli was Tortolo's secretary and kept a list for the military chaplaincy of people who had been disappeared, marking with a cross the names of those confirmed dead by the military.

● After the coup Bishop Victorio Bonamin, head chaplain for the army, asserted “that when a military man is carrying out his repressive duty, ‘Christ has entered with truth and goodness,’ ” [9]

● At the trial of former chief police chaplain for the province of Buenos Aires Christian Von Wernich several former prisoners described how Father Von Wernich used his office to win their trust before passing information to police torturers and killers in secret detention centres. They testified that he also attended several torture sessions and absolved the police of blame, telling them they were doing God’s work. [10]

● According to naval officer Adolfo Scilingo, Father Alberto Ángel Zanchetta who served as a chaplain at ESMA, “the Auschwitz of Argentina”, consoled the officers who were stricken with anguish. Their tasks ranged from routine torture and executions to participation in “death flights”, in which prisoners were drugged, stripped naked and pushed from planes to drown in the ocean below. After his first flight, Scilingo was wracked by guilt, but the military chaplain told him that this was a “Christian and non-violent” way to die and justified it by citing the Biblical parable about separating the wheat from the chaff.

More:
http://www.concordatwatch.eu/showtopic.php?org_id=11781&kb_header_id=48350

[ellie]

90. For fuck's sake

These people are ... I have no words. I mean really. To hell with all of them! My father hated the Catholic Church with the red hot intensity of a thousand suns. He said all the priests, the bishops, the cardinals, and the pope were corrupt to the core. He was right.

[CRH]

93. Thanks for your post, ...

It appears their were several tribunals and much investigation. There were many named, some by many witnesses. I don't see any stories other than innuendo that link the Pope directly to anything. It is certain there were many atrocities during the dirty war, it is certain the Catholic church took sides, but nothing that demonstrates Bergoglio was a major player in bad action. In fact, there seem to be a shortage of witnesses to any supposed wrong doing.

I need more before I can form an opinion on this.

[OldDem2012]

100. Thanks for posting this....very helpful in understanding the Catholic Church's role in this....

...extremely sordid page in Argentine history.

This is no different than how the Catholic Church worked with the Nazis to enable the Holocaust, prior to, and during WWII.

I have no suitable words to describe how I feel about this.

[Zorra]

85. Eeeeew. nt

[Solly Mack]

89. The article has since been corrected.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/belief/2011/jan/04/argenitina-videla-bergoglio-repentance


"This article was amended on 14 March 2013. The original article, published in 2011, wrongly suggested that Argentinian journalist Horacio Verbitsky claimed that Cardinal Jorge Bergoglio connived with the Argentinian navy to hide political prisoners on an island called El Silencio during an inspection by human rights monitors. Although Verbitsky makes other allegations about Bergoglio's complicity in human rights abuses, he does not make this claim. The original article also wrongly described El Silencio as Bergoglio's "holiday home". This has been corrected."

[SunSeeker]

95. I wish Sister Simone Campbell was pope. nt

[sendero]

97. Human..

... first of all I am not religious and my overall opinion of the Catholic church is not one of respect. Anyone can understand how incidents like pedophile priests can happen, protecting them is indefensible, period.

That said, I don't think it makes all that much difference who is pope. We've been through several over the last few decades and I see little difference in the church as a result of any of their tenures.

This guy looks like the typical human. Clearly there are many things to recommend him, I for one would appreciate him trying to return the focus of the church to the poor, after all that was what Jesus was mostly about. Did he do some expedient things during the dirty war? Well the evidence is there but not exactly conclusive. Is his attitude about gays neanderthal? Yes, but to be fair how many higher ups in the church don't share his attitude? So he is a mixed bag like all of us.

Let's hope that he CAN move the church forward, that would be really nice.

[Coyotl]

102. The Vatican is a right-wing stink tank. Who knew? Hitler, Mussilini, et.al. knew that.

If you think the college of cardinals isn't aware of their own politics, guess again. The elected this guy knowing this full well, and they agree with his politics. The church in Latin America sided with the campaigns against the leftists with few exceptions, like Bishop Romero in Guatemala. The Catholic church as been vehemently anti-socialist for a long time. Until we get some very solid statements to the contrary, I assume this remains the case.

[Catherina]

103. Guardian corrects column about Argentine Dirty War, removes references to Pope Francis.

Reposting from a Post by BlueCheese

Guardian corrects column about Argentine Dirty War, removes references to Pope Francis.


http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/belief/2011/jan/04/argenitina-videla-bergoglio-repentance

Summary: Guardian retracts 2011 accusations, widely read on DU, about Pope Francis' role in Argentine Dirty War.

In the few days after the new pope was elected, I saw many references to a 2011 column in the highly respected UK newspaper The Guardian. The columnist described accusations, supposedly by the Argentinian journalist Horacio Verbitsky, about the Catholic church's role in the Argentine Dirty War, and that of Pope Francis in particular. There were likely hundreds of posts in threads or subthreads started by this column.

It turns out the Guardian has now corrected that column. Apparently the columnist misinterpreted Verbitsky's book, failed to check who was Archbishop at the time, or made some other error. In any case these accusations against Francis have been retracted. I've seen references to this correction in a few other threads. But given the very wide distribution the original claim received, I thought it important that the correction get a thread of its own too.

Here's the correction:

This article was amended on 14 March 2013. The original article, published in 2011, wrongly suggested that Argentinian journalist Horacio Verbitsky claimed that Cardinal Jorge Bergoglio connived with the Argentinian navy to hide political prisoners on an island called El Silencio during an inspection by human rights monitors. Although Verbitsky makes other allegations about Bergoglio's complicity in human rights abuses, he does not make this claim. The original article also wrongly described El Silencio as Bergoglio's "holiday home". This has been corrected.