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Related: Editorials & Other Articles, Issue Forums, Alliance Forums, Region ForumsPope Francis Kidnapping Controversy: Jorge Mario Bergoglio Accused Of Involvement In 1976 Abductions
The election of Pope Francis, previously Cardinal Jorge Mario Bergoglio, has resurfaced a decades-old controversy surrounding the kidnappings of two Jesuit priests.
Bergoglio was a high-ranking official in the Society of Jesus of Argentina when a military junta was installed in the South American country in 1976. According to the Los Angeles Times, priests Orlando Yorio and Francisco Jalics were kidnapped in May of that year by the navy. "They surfaced five months later, drugged and seminude, in a field," the Times reported. A 2005 lawsuit accused Bergoglio of unspecified involvement in the abductions. Reuters explains that "the military government secretly jailed [Yorio and Jalics] for their work in poor neighborhoods."
A spokesman for Bergoglio called the claims "old slander."
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/03/13/pope-francis-kidnapping_n_2870251.html?utm_hp_ref=mostpopular
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Oh joy. Just what I would look for in a leader if I was a cardinal!
morningfog
(18,115 posts)Shivering Jemmy
(900 posts)if it's true.
Fearless
(18,421 posts)You've made a claim without evidence.
Do you have evidence?
AnotherMcIntosh
(11,064 posts)MrMickeysMom
(20,453 posts)P.S. I hear there are no more leaders...
Shivering Jemmy
(900 posts)Fearless
(18,421 posts)Roland99
(53,342 posts)We welcome you to Democracy Now! I wanted to just begin by you laying out for us what you believe is important to understand about the new pope, Pope Francis.
HORACIO VERBITSKY: The main thing to understand about Francis I is that hes a conservative populist, in the same style that John Paul II was. Hes a man of strong conservative positions in doctrine questions, but with a touch for popular taste. He preaches in rail stations, in the streets. He goes to the quarters, the poor quarters of the city to pray. He doesnt wait the people going into the church; he goes for them. But his message is absolutely conservative. He was opposed to abortion, to the egalitarian matrimony law. He launched a crusade against the evil when Congress was passing this law, and in the very same style that John Paul II. This is what I consider the main feature on the new pope.
JUAN GONZÁLEZ: Well, now, Horacio Verbitsky, that would be true of many of the cardinals elevated during the period of John Paul and now also of Benedict XVI, this basic conservatism. But in the case of Bergoglio, theres also the issue, as you have documented and manyand several other journalists in Argentina, of his particular role or accusations about his involvement in the dirty wars in Argentina. Could you talk about that and some of the things thatbecause youve been a leading investigative reporter uncovering the relations between the church and the government in terms of the dirty wars?
HORACIO VERBITSKY: Of course. He was accused by two Jesuit priests of having surrendered them to the military. They were a group of Jesuits that were under Bergoglios direction. He was the provincial superior of the order in Argentina, being very, very young. He was the younger provincial Jesuit in history; at 36 years, he was provincial. During a period of great political activity in the Jesuits company, he stimulated the social work of the Jesuits. But when the military coup overthrow the Isabel Perón government, he was in touch with the military that ousted this government and asked the Jesuits to stop their social work. And when they refused to do it, he stopped protecting them, and he let the military know that they were not more inside the protection of the Jesuits company, and they were kidnapped. And they accuse him for this deed. He denies this. He said to me that he tried to get them free, that he talked with the former dictator, Videla, and with former dictator Massera to have them freed.
Full transcript at the link.
Whisp
(24,096 posts)must have some legs if ole Morgan tries to nip this one in the bud.
Octafish
(55,745 posts)At least, that's what the record shows...
http://www.democraticunderground.com/10022504050
colsohlibgal
(5,275 posts)He had on someone from Argentina, someone he knew, a newspaper guy I think. But this guy said with no uncertainty that the new Pope was complicit at some level with the brutal regime during the Dirty War.
I imagine Malloy will spend time on this again tonight.
Zorra
(27,670 posts)to videos and transcripts:
http://www.democracynow.org/2013/3/14/pope_francis_junta_past_argentine_journalist?autostart=true
http://www.democracynow.org/2013/3/14/a_social_conservative_pope_francis_led?autostart=true&get_clicky_key=suggested_next_story
I have a strong suspicion that this clearly fascist Pope was chosen for the specific purpose of using his influence as Pope help counter the widespread movements toward genuine egalitarian democracies in many South American countries.
I feel really, really bad for liberal Catholic Democrats right now. They literally got totally sold out.