Top Human Rights officials in Argentina dismiss collaborator claims about Pope Francis as slander

[Catherina]

I've read a ton of accounts about his alleged complicity and there are even many people saying he had no involvement whatsover, including Adolfo Perez Esquivel who won nobel prize for for documenting the atrocities "Perhaps he didn't have the courage of other priests, but he never collaborated with the dictatorship. Bergoglio was no accomplice of the dictatorship. He can't be accused of that."

The instant rumors about Pope Francis, the page 28 retractions are a tad too convenient. A few days ago I read the scandalous allegations gem in the UK Daily Mail that so many people take as gospel these days. As I skimmed it, I was struck by all the whimpy "documents appear to show", "documents appears to reveal", "documents suggest", "alleged"...

In that same article, it states that Beroglio dismissed the 2 priest from the order and that shortly after he dismissed them, they were picked up and became convinced he betrayed them. I'm confused as to how he could have betrayed them when they were already on the Junta's radar and a layperson they were associated with gave their names, under torture, to the Junta. And the claim that he withdrew his protection is silly. They both requested to leave the order, Bergoglia accepted and expelled them accordingly. How can he be to blame if they gave up any protection being members of the order could give them? I think it's dishonest of Verbitsky to twist that into an accusation that Bergoglio withdrew his protection. What did they expect? For him and the Jesuit order to take up arms to go liberate them?

I also tend to believe Bergoglio's version that he went to the Junta and pleaded for them because they were the only 2, out of 6000, who survived. Obviously someone went to the Junta and interceded for them and if it wasn't Bergoglio, then let the brave soul who did come forward.

What do we do with all the people who stated that Bergoglio wasn't involved and on the contrary, saved their lives? Dismiss them? Jorge Rafael Videla, the Junta leader at the time, was tried and convicted. During his court testimony and in subsequent interviews, he named several priest collaborators but Bergoglio's name never came up once.

More:

n 2010, Bergoglio declined to appear in court after being called to testify as a witness in the trial of 18 military officials who ran the Naval Mechanics School, where detainees were often taken and tortured. It was the same detention center where Yorio and Jalics were taken after their arrest on suspicion of associating with leftwing guerrillas in the Buenos Aires slums where they worked under Bergoglio.

Citing “clerical immunity” granted by Argentine law, Bergoglio insisted on giving testimony in his church offices and told investigators that he personally intervened with the country’s military rulers on behalf of the young priests. A transcript of his four-hour interview has been published online by Argentine rights groups, and attorneys close to the case verify its accuracy.

...

The criticism of the new pope for not doing enough has prompted several prominent Argentine rights activists, including Nobel Peace Prize winner Adolfo Perez Esquivel, to come to his defense in recent days.

“There were some priests and bishops that helped the dictatorship, and others who spoke out and died because of it. But Bergoglio wasn’t a collaborator,” said Graciela Fernandez Meijide, a politician and prominent human rights investigator whose 16-year-old son vanished after being snatched from his bed by soldiers in the middle of the night.

...

http://www.japantimes.co.jp/news/2013/03/17/world/popes-alleged-inaction-in-argentinas-dirty-war-is-scrutinized/

Former judge Alicia Oliveira goes even further, describing the claims against the Pope as an “outrage”. In an interview with the Perfil newspaper, she says that she saw Bergoglio twice weekly during the dictatorship, adding: “He was not in favour of the dictatorship, he even helped people try to leave the country.

“Once there was a young man who could not leave because he was a marked man, but he looked like Bergoglio so he gave him his identity papers, his clerical collar and his clerical robe so he could escape.

http://www.perfil.com/politica/Alicia-Oliveira-Garre-sabe-todo-lo-que-hizo-Bergoglio-20130315-0019.html

That man slipped across the border using Bergoglio's identity papers.


Oliveira was the Secretary of Human Rights of the Argentine Chancery under Rafael Bielsa and Néstor Kirchner.

Graciela Fernández Meijide, a human-rights activist and former member of the national commission on the disappearance of persons, told the Argentine press last week that “of all the testimony I received, never did I receive any testimony that Bergoglio was connected to the dictatorship.”

http://stream.wsj.com/story/latest-headlines/SS-2-63399/SS-2-191502/

RIO DE JANEIRO, Mar 19 2013 (IPS) - Brazilian theologian Leonardo Boff, a leading exponent of liberation theology, the progressive current in the Latin American Catholic Church, does not believe reports that depict the new Pope Francis as collaborating with Argentina’s 1976-1983 dictatorship.

In this interview with IPS, Boff acknowledged that it was a “controversial issue,” and that there were contradictory accounts. But he said he believed prominent human rights defenders in Argentina who denied that Archbishop Jorge Bergoglio, elected pope by the Vatican, had any ties with Argentina’s military regime.

...

Q: In Argentina, the election of Bergoglio was criticised because of his supposed complicity in the abduction of two Jesuit priests during the dictatorship.

A: I know that in general the Argentine church was not very prophetic in denouncing state terrorism. Despite that, there were bishops like (Enrique) Angelleli, who died in a shady manner, (Jorge) Novak, (Jaime) De Nevares and Jerónimo Podestá, among others, who were openly critical.

But with regard to Bergoglio, I prefer to believe Adolfo Pérez Esquivel, a Nobel Peace Prize-winner, and a former member of the National Commission on the Disappearance of Persons (Graciela Fernández Meijide), who say that allegation is slanderous. They didn’t find a single mention of Bergoglio’s name on documents or legal accusations.

On the contrary, he saved many people by hiding them in the Colegio Máximo de San Miguel (Argentina’s main Jesuit training centre). Besides, it runs against his known character – he is strong but also tender, and poor, and he continuously speaks out against social injustice in Argentina and for the need for justice, not philanthropy

...

http://www.ipsnews.net/2013/03/qa-what-matters-isnt-bergoglio-and-his-past-but-francis-and-his-future/

Chris Trotter, a left wing journalist who got taken in, nailed it here in his recent article Mea Culpa – The Pope Is Not A Fascist

In that article O’Shaughnessy levelled a number of serious accusations at the then Archbishop Jorge Bergoglio – all of which he has been forced to retract.

...

On that day, all over the world, left-wing journalists (myself included) had registered the fact that the new pope was an Argentine; that he had been born in 1936; and that he had been a senior Catholic prelate in Buenos Aires during Argentina’s “Dirty War”.

Immediately, we Googled “Bergoglio” and “Dirty War”, and – Bingo! – up popped O’Shaughnessy’s 2011 article. Twitter ensured that the story was up-and-running before the Pope had finished blessing the cheering crowds in St Peter’s Square.

...

So we kept trawling the Internet. What had Wikipedia to say about Jorge Bergoglio? Ah ha! It seems he was in involved in the Junta’s abduction and mistreatment of two Jesuit priests. Followers of “Liberation Theology”, these radical clerics had gone to work in the slums, come into contact with leftist revolutionaries, and paid the price.

Now we had more than enough! The new pope had consorted with fascists. As the Archbishop of Buenos Aires, he had not only failed to protect his flock, he hadn’t even protected members of his own Jesuit Order!

...

http://thedailyblog.co.nz/2013/03/18/mea-culpa-the-pope-is-not-a-fascist/

Wiki has since removed that information. Ironically, they got it from the Guardian.

Then to add insult to injury:

The Guardian’s credulity is mirrored in the online circulation of incorrectly captioned photos that claim to show Bergoglio giving Communion to dictator Jorge Videla, when in fact the priest in the photo is someone else.

http://www.firstthings.com/blogs/firstthoughts/2013/03/15/pope-francis-bergoglio-argentina-dictatorship/

Sadly the harm is done. The Guardian's falsehoods are printed everywhere now and it's gospel truth to many that Bergoglio hid war criminals in his summer home. None of the articles based on the Guardian's article even mention any corrections or retractions.

You know that old saying that a lie will get halfway around the world before the truth can get its boots on?

Where does this story come from? One man, Horacio Verbitzky, an advocacy journalist and leftist militant, who repeats the same discredited accusations any time the former Cardinal Bergoglio makes the news.

When he did so prior to the last papal conclave in 2005, John Allen, CNN's papal analyst, debunked it with one phone call to the Argentine headquarters of Amnesty International, which denounced the allegations as baseless.

http://www.southcoasttoday.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20130319/NEWS/303190324

[sabrina 1]

1. Shameful example of the kind of lies that are often told about Latin America

Thank you as I had read those allegations and was definitely affected, negatively, by them. I am very glad to learn they were simply more lies told about anyone in the that region of the world who speaks about the poor or condemns the influence of the IMF and World Bank which I am sure is what this was all about.

[Catherina]

2. You're welcome. I found that Verbitzky fellow a bit too eager and zealous to grind that ax

Verbitzky has his own credibility problems based on allegations by his chief and several comrades in the Marxist Montaneros that he was a traitor who was directly responsible for many of their deaths. The number I saw was in the 50s. I don't know how true that is because I wasn't too keen on the sources where I found this information but if he wants to play the old "where there's smoke, there's fire", he might want to be more careful.

I asked about Pope Francis in the Liberation circles down here when the accusations first broke at DU and the answer I got from everyone, regardless of their priestly political differences with him, was that it was slander.

[sabrina 1]

3. It would be interesting to find out more about Verbitsky. Not saying we should just

accept rumors about anyone, but when someone is that willing to spread a vicious rumor about someone in Latin America, it does raise a few red flags.

I am glad you are able to speak to people there who actually know what went on.

I have read that Pope Francis has spoken out against the negative effects of the IMF and Western policies in general in that region of the world. It must be terrifying to those Globalists to see someone like him, from Latin America, be placed in a such a position of influence. Just when they thought they got rid of Chavez!

I am betting that it was his position on Western policies that sparked the smear campaign.

[ucrdem]

8. Verbitsky is an interesting figure, isn't he?

Most of the collaboration claims being trumpeted in the media derive from Verbitsky, who by his own account made a sudden conversion from friend to nemesis in 2005, when Bergoglio was being considered to replace John Paul 2. Octafish has looked into this too. Verbitsky's 2005 El Silencio, reporting claims supposedly made by Orlando Yorio just before his death six years earlier in 1999, might have helped Bergoglio lose.

I looked into some of Verbitksy's other claims and posted what I found here:

http://www.democraticunderground.com/121873625#post3

[Catherina]

13. That was a most excellent post

I bookmarked it for posterity because Verbitzky's lies are now accepted as gospel truth.

Nevermind that he couldn't even get the picture on the front page of his book right and tried to pass of some other priest as being Verbitzky for his *shocking* *discoveries*.

Fact-checking seems to be a dead art.

[ucrdem]

18. Thanks Catherina, and likewise!

And I'm glad you're looking into this. I'll be interested in reading whatever you find.

[Catherina]

14. I'm going to try to find more out.

I agree with you on that.

As long as it was Pope Benedict speaking out on the issue, it wasn't going to get much traction. Now with a more charismatic Pope, people may pay more attention. I also wonder if this is in any way related to the Falklands issue since the first thing Christina Kirchner did was ask him to intervene in the diplomatic war over that. That could be a leap but I was so stunned to see the Guardian publishing such a shoddy piece and then giving it a tiny, tiny retraction that few will ever see.

[Bluenorthwest]

4. Christianity teaches that our actions return to us like bread cast upon the waters.

The slanders and libels against LGBT people Francis spews will, according to Jesus, return to him. Thus, it is expected that this should happen, and some would say it is just what Jesus told them would happen to slanderous bigots.
Poor Francis, interrupted in his anti gay diatribes because someone said something bad about him. The man says gay people are instruments of Satan. Calls our quest for rights an 'attack on God'.
Funny to me that Francis' bigoted words are not criticized as the slanders they are.

[Catherina]

7. Then criticize him on that. No need to resort to lies and revel that he has it coming n/t

[Nuclear Unicorn]

30. I hate mushy bread.

[Octafish]

5. Pope Francis was Runner-Up in 2005 - Smeared by Rivals?

The Pope Emeritus won out.



Someone, back during the last Conclave, made certain the following story surfaced:

Dirty War

Allegations against Cardinal Bergoglio

Encyclopedia II

On April 15, 2005, a human rights lawyer filed a criminal complaint against Argentine cardinal Jorge Bergoglio, accusing him of conspiring with the junta in 1976 to kidnap two Jesuit priests. So far, no hard evidence has been presented linking the cardinal to this crime. It is known that the cardinal was the superior figure in the Society of Jesus of Argentina (Jesuits) during 1976 and had asked the two priests to leave their pastoral work following conflict within the Society over how to respond to the new military dictatorship, with some priests advocating a violent overthrow. Bergoglio's spokesman has flatly denied the allegations. (4)
It should be noted that Bergoglio was a key figure in securing the priests' release following their abduction by an Argentine navy squad, as he pressured Navy Chief of Staff Emilio Eduardo Massera.

The complaint was filed as the Roman Catholic Conclave prepared to convene to select a new pope, likely as a means of protesting Bergoglio's candidacy.

SOURCE: http://www.experiencefestival.com/a/Dirty_War_-_Allegations_against_Cardinal_Bergoglio/id/1328078

Yet, after more than 7 years, the corruption, etc., has not been weeded out, let alone excised.

Quiet thunder in Argentina

This profile of Cardinal Bergoglio first appeared in The Catholic Herald on October 7 2005

By JOSE MARIA POIRIER on Wednesday, 13 March 2013

José Mariá Poirier explains why the self-effacing Archbishop of Buenos Aires may well be the next pope

What a surprise: it turns out that the main opponent to the unstoppable Joseph Ratzinger in the April conclave was none other than the severe, shy figure of the Archbishop of Buenos Aires. The revelation comes in the “secret diary” of one of their colleagues in the Casa Santa Marta – a cardinal’s account of the election published recently in an Italian magazine.

The spotlight the news has placed on Cardinal Jorge Mario Bergoglio – whether or not it is true – will be agony for this notoriously media-shy Jesuit, whose face will have gone even redder with the speculation by vaticanisti that Bergoglio should now be seen as the leading contender to replace Benedict XVI when his time comes: the first Jesuit, and the first Latin American, in Church history to occupy the See of St Peter.

For Bergoglio’s enemies, the revelation will come as no surprise. It only proves, they will say, what we thought all along: that behind all that humility what Bergoglio really cares about is ambition.

But for almost everyone else it does seem remarkable that a relatively obscure South American cardinal should have been an obstacle in the path of the great German theologian and former prefect of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith. The “secret diary” suggests that Cardinal Carlo Maria Martini, the former Archbishop of Milan and the standard-bearer for the progressive cardinals, asked not to be taken into consideration for reasons of age and health. His votes (around 40, according to the diary) went instead to Bergoglio, who was seen as the best hope for those who wanted, for whatever reason, to stop Ratzinger. Although the Bergoglio vote was not enough to stop Ratzinger, it prevented the German sweeping the board in the first two rounds.

SNIP...

What is certain is that he is not loved by most of his Jesuit companions. They remember him as their provincial during the violence of the 1970s, when the army came to power amid a breakdown in the political system after the death of General Peron. Apart of the Church in Argentina was involved in the theology of liberation and opposed the military government. Bergoglio was not. “After a war,” he was heard to say, “you have to act firmly.”

SNIP...

Where do his political sympathies lie? Certainly not on the Left. Those who know him best would consider him on the moderate Right, close to that strand of popular 
Peronism which is hostile to liberal capitalism. In the economic crisis of 2001-2002, when Argentina defaulted on its debt, people came out on to the streets and supermarkets were looted, Bergoglio was quick to denounce the neo-liberal banking system which had left Argentina with an unpayable debt.

CONTINUED...

http://www.catholicherald.co.uk/features/2013/03/13/quiet-thunder-in-argentina/

Gee? A Pope who can control the Curia? Now that sounds like a guy who might really be interested in peace and poverty.

FYI: The Curia -- or Church administration hierarchy and central governing body of the Church -- is the same group that banks and does business with BNL, BCCI and the BFEE? Please note: The "Gonzalez" referred to at the link is the late U.S. Rep. Henry Gonzalez, (D-Texas). He was a real Democrat, one who used the powers of government to make life better for ALL Americans. The George Herbert Walker Bush administration did all it could to derail his Congressional investigations of their many and various treasons. Here's an important example, courtesy of the late William Safire.

PS: The above was originally posted March 13 on DU. Not just vanity, I bring it up now to add to this excellent OP and thread. Thank you, Catherina!

[Catherina]

11. More gems from you. Thank you! n/t

[ucrdem]

6. Yes the gospel according to Verbitsky is getting loads of airplay

but none of it boils down to much more than this:



An insinuation based on a false identification of a priest giving former Argentine dictator Jorge Videla communion. It isn't Bergoglio, of course, but try to tell that to the blogosphere. Note the byline. Anyway thanks for this fantastic post Catherina, reccing for truth and I hope it gets a lot of traction. But I'm not betting on it.

[Catherina]

10. Oh my. Verbitzky again

Verbitsky publishes a photo of Bergoglio giving Holy Communion to Argentine military dictator General Jorge Rafael Videla.

http://www.rappler.com/video/reports/24098-argentine-dictatorship-hounds-pope-francis

This is organized. There are two other fake photos making the rounds. Unfortunately for Verbitzky, everyone isn't daft yet and people recognized the priest in the photo he used as not Verbitzky. For one he's too old.

But the photo stays up with no retraction.

I'm not betting on it either but thank you.

[ucrdem]

16. The priest in the photo has been identified

by Argentine daily La Nacion as Bishop Octavio Derisi Nicholas, who died in 2002:

En realidad, ese sacerdote era Mons. Octavio Nicolás Derisi, fallecido en 2002, y no Bergoglio.

http://www.lanacion.com.ar/1562969-las-redes-sociales-fueron-una-vidriera-de-la-argentinidad

Bergoglio in 2003, 13 years after the 1990 photo with Videla:



It's not hard to figure out that the priest in the older picture is way too old to be Bergoglio, whatever the similarity. In any case, by 1990, Videla had already been tried and imprisoned, and there's nothing illegal or immoral about giving an ex-prisoner communion.

[Catherina]

20. Thank you for finding this name. Bookmarking this n/t

[sabrina 1]

15. So fake photos spread around and no retractions. Surely this person has been made aware

that at the very least, he has made a mistake by now? More and more I wonder about this Verbitsky.

[Catherina]

19. There's no way he's not aware. That book was published years ago

and people pointed it out years ago. But here he is today, still peddling the same book and its false facts.

It just gets worse Sabrina. The guy has no integrity whatsoever.

Verbitsky's accusation
20/03/2013 12:18
The Court found no evidence to support the journalist's charges against Bergoglio.

...
The events surrounding the kidnapping of priests Orlando Yorio and Francisco Jalics were subjected to detailed analysis by the Tribunal Oral Federal Criminal No. 5 in the ESMA case, which resulted in the conviction of several leaders of the Navy, among whom were Alfredo Astiz and Jorge Acosta, in judgment of December 28, 2011 (http://www.cij.gov.ar/adj/pdfs/ADJ-0.528228001325176851.pdf). From page 743 to 761 can be read all the testimony relating to the case of the Jesuits Orlando Yorio and Francisco Jalics. It is a very relevant, since we are at the statement of facts found by an impartial court making a thorough reconstruction of the facts, assessing all the elements involved.

We highlight the most significant proven facts of the judgment for the purposes of this report. According to a letter from Orlando Yorio at the trial, Bergoglio returned to Rome in February 1976 with an order from the superior of the congregation, the Jesuit Pedro Arrupe, which ordered the dissolution of the community in which Yorio and Jalics were, within 15 days, to relocate Jalics to Europe and relocate the Argentinian priests to other locations. The order was issued because of the danger to their lives, as other priests had already been killed and the area was under weapons' fire.

According to Bergoglio's account, "since they persisted in their project, the group was disbanded and they were expelled from the Company (at their request)." Yorio's resignation was accepted on March 19, 1976. Bergoglio adds that "with rumors of an imminent coup I told them to be very careful. I offered, if they ever needed for their safety, that they could came stay in the provincial house of the Company." He adds that he never believed that they were involved in subversive activities, "but by their association with some other priests of shantytowns, were too exposed and vulnerable to the paranoia of the witch hunts. As they remained in the neighborhood, Yorio and Jalics were kidnapped during a raid. " Rodolfo Yorio, Orlando's brother, told the court that the Archbishop of Buenos Aires, Bishop Aramburu had forbidden his brother say mass. "However, Orlando's brother added, Yorio's immediate supervisor Bergoglio authorized him to do so in private".

Another point of relevance is that this was not the kidnapping of two isolated individuals as a result of a complaint, but there was a raid on Sunday, May 23 during which about 200 members of the navy and federal police surrounded Bajo Flores and arrested several suspects. Some laymen were released within days, but both priests were taken to the ESMA and remained captive for five months. On October 23, 1976 "as a result of the efforts of the Order to which they belonged," says the statement, they were abandoned in a field, having been drugged. Sadly four catechists and two of their husbands kidnapped in the same operation were never seen again. Among them were Monica Candelaria Mignone, daughter of the founder of CELS, Emilio Mignone and Maria Marta Vazquez Ocampo, president of the Mothers of Plaza de Mayo, Martha Vazquez Ocampo.

Alicia Oliveira, a lawyer and friend of Bergoglio CELS, whose sister worked in the town of Flores with Mignone's daughter and two priests gave the following account: "Bergoglio told them had to leave Bajo Flores and they ignored him. After they were kidnapped, and Bergoglio found out the Navy was holding them, Bergoglio managed to confront Massera, the Navy Chief, and told him that if did not release the priests, he, as Provincial, would denounce him. The next day, the two priests were released. " A witness in the trial relates that Colonel Flouret, Adviser to the Interior Minister Harguindeguy, told him that "the Holy See, the Bishop and the Apostolic Nuncio are breathing down our necks for them." After obtaining the freedom of priests, Bergoglio succeeded in obtaining passports for them and bought them plane tickets to Rome.

...

http://www.rionegro.com.ar/diario/la-acusacion-de-verbitsky-1100708-9533-nota.aspx

[magical thyme]

9. thank you for this information

I am not Catholic and am distrustful of all large, powerful organizations, be they organized religions or governments or corporations.

I am heartened to see those rumors soundly debunked. I hold guarded hopes that the new Pope will lead the Catholic Church back to what it should be.

[Catherina]

12. I hope so too.

I have some faith in him because he's not a Vatican insider and he's not known for playing ball.

[Ikonoklast]

17. And he is still anti-woman, anti-gay, anti-progressive.

By his own words.

If you think that he is some sort of reformer, Francis will keep the tiller of the Vatican ship of state firmly planted to the starboard side.

Good to see he has his supporters here, though.

[ucrdem]

21. But not a fascist collaborator.

I think that's the key point here. What Catherina has put together here is worth sharing because few of us have the resources to get to the bottom of a rather complicated set of events, to start with, that's been shamelessly spun to make Bergoglio look like a collaborator who betrayed members of his own community to the Junta. It's clear that he didn't but it takes some sorting to figure out what's up and posts like this one can only help.

[Ikonoklast]

22. I see him as a pragmatist during the Dirty war. He was far from any type of hero.

He is now the titular head of one of the most authoritarian organizations of any type, public or private, on this planet.

His allegiance now is to the preservation of the institution he now leads, under all circumstances.

He will be as much a 'progressive' on social issues as the last guy.

[ucrdem]

23. Somebody saved those two priests' lives.

They were released. Thousands were not, including clergy. Bergoglio's account of demanding their release is credible and no one has disputed it. Whether or not it makes him a hero I suppose a matter of judgement. And now he's the head of a church, not a foundation, so his allegiances are to 1.2 billion people plus the planet plus the rest of creation which includes everyone else which includes you. If he wanted to curate a museum I imagine he could have made a comfy living doing that, but he didn't.

[Ikonoklast]

24. He stepped up only when the issue affected him on a personal level.

Otherwise, it was strangers getting murdered by the Junta, no concern of his.

[Catherina]

25. Bullshit. He hid many people in the Seminary

to hide them from the Junta. He never gave away the locations of Leftist officials who were in hiding whom he had lunch with twice a week. He gave his identification papers, clerical collar and cassock to a young lay man the Junta was looking for when he ran into him in the barrios and that young man was able to make it across the border.

And those are just a few examples.

Historical accuracy and intellectual honesty seem to be no concern of yours.

[Ikonoklast]

26. Glad that he helped in many small ways.

He saved a few lives.


He could have saved thousands.

[ucrdem]

27. Okay, please tell us how he could have saved thousands.

I'm all ears.

[Ikonoklast]

28. The same way Martin Luther King did.

By putting his life on the line for what he believed in.

[ucrdem]

29. Can you develop this a little?

What did MLK do in the US to save thousands that Bergoglio could have done in junta-era Argentina to save thousands?