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

[BlueCheese]

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 In any case these accusations against Francis have been retracted.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.

[Catherina]

1. Wow. Thus a lie went halfway around the world before the truth got its boots on

Thanks for posting this because most people never see retractions. Bookmarked.

[babylonsister]

2. Wow. Media fucked up. Say it isn't so!

OK, I'm neutral in this. The truth would work.

[rhett o rick]

3. When a liar tells you he lied, do you trust him? nm

[defacto7]

6. Trust him? No.

Believe him? No reason not to as long as facts corroborate the statement.

[No Vested Interest]

4. But, but, but

It was on Google.
We rely on Google for information when we know nothing of a subject.
Does that mean we have to retract the information we posted and defended so vociferously?

(Sorry: I don't know how to get the sarcasm icon.)

[ChazII]

11. For the sarcasm icon

click on the smilies button and underneath the rows of smilies you will see a bubble with ... inside of it. Click on that and you'll see the sarcasm icon.

[No Vested Interest]

12. Thanks

I may wear it out from overuse.

[JohnyCanuck]

5. I wonder if the Daily Mail will later retract what it published today, Mar 17th

Special report: The damning documents that show new Pope DID betray tortured priests to the junta

Damning evidence that Pope Francis may have betrayed two priests who were kidnapped and tortured by Argentina’s brutal military junta can be revealed today.

The Mail on Sunday has seen documents which appear to show the new Pope secretly collaborated with the country’s dictatorship when he was head of the Jesuits there – using his real name Jorge Bergoglio – during the Dirty War that started in the Seventies.

One of the documents is a 27-page report by Orlando Yorio, one of the kidnapped priests, in which he accuses the current pontiff of secretly spreading dangerous rumours about him and a colleague while personally promising them support and protection.

A second document is a confidential government memo written in 1979 which appears to reveal Bergoglio informed junta officials that Father Yorio and Father Francisco Jalics were suspected of collaborating with guerrillas and that Jalics was accused of encouraging dissent among a congregation of nuns.

Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2294580/Special-report-The-damning-documents-new-Pope-DID-betray-tortured-priests-junta.html#ixzz2NluXUaLp

[Zorra]

10. Here:

http://www.democracynow.org/2013/3/14/pope_francis_junta_past_argentine_journalist

[MattSh]

15. Isn't quoting the Daily Mail

similar to quoting Fox News? Just asking...

[pnwmom]

8. So, will this be posted over and over again, like the first incorrect article was?

Somehow I doubt it.

[Hekate]

9. The misinformation/lie was posted at DU less than an hour ago

http://www.democraticunderground.com/1014427482

Special report: The damning documents that show new Pope DID betray tortured priests to the junta
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2294580/Special-report-The-damning-documents-new-Pope-DID-betray-tortured-priests-junta.html#ixzz2Nlum8hXw

Oh, brother.

[jsr]

13. And they still have the wrong guy in the photo.

LOL.

[caseymoz]

14. That's the Daily Mail.

You can count on any story in it to be wrong. It's The Onion except undeliberate and without the comedy.

It's quite a bit different when the The Guardian makes an error like that.

As an Atheist, I'll say I'm somewhat encouraged by Francis, and now that the incompetent reporting has been uncovered, his public profile becomes more consistent with the man who's pushing the church to serve the poor.

I didn't feel this way with Benedict. Francis is a definite improvement.

[erpliu]

16. doc online shows conclusively (unless forged) now-pope snitched big time and viciously proactive

here are the links to

doc translated: http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2013/mar/17/pope-francis-first-sunday-prayer

the original: http://www.pagina12.com.ar/diario/elpais/1-215961-2013-03-17.html

interview in english of award-winning journalist who found the doc in the argentinian gov's archives: http://www.democracynow.org/2013/3/14/pope_francis_junta_past_argentine_journalist

more in english: http://morallowground.com/2013/03/17/smoking-gun-memo-proves-pope-francis-collaborated-with-argentine-dirty-war-regime/

[In_The_Wind]

17. Hello ~ erpliu.

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