The Vatican has denied that Pope Francis failed to speak out against human rights abuses during military rule in his native Argentina.
"There has never been a credible, concrete accusation against him," said Vatican spokesman Federico Lombardi, adding he had never been charged.
The spokesman blamed the accusations on "anti-clerical left-wing elements that are used to attack the Church".
Jorge Bergoglio, now Pope Francis, led Argentina's Jesuits under the junta.
Correspondents say that like other Latin American churchmen of the time, he had to contend, on the one hand, with a repressive right-wing regime and, on the other, a wing of his Church leaning towards political activism on the left.
One allegation concerns the abduction in 1976 of two Jesuits by Argentina's military government, suspicious of their work among slum-dwellers.
As the priests' provincial superior at the time, Jorge Bergoglio was accused by some of having failed to shield them from arrest - a charge his office flatly denied.
Judges investigating the arrest and torture of the two men - who were freed after five months - questioned Cardinal Bergoglio as a witness in 2010.
The new Pope's official biographer, Sergio Rubin, argues that the Jesuit leader "took extraordinary, behind-the-scenes action to save them".
Another accusation levelled against him from the Dirty War era is that he failed to follow up a request to help find the baby of a woman kidnapped when five months' pregnant pregnant and killed in 1977. It is believed the baby was illegally adopted.
The cardinal testified in 2010 that he had not known about baby thefts until well after the junta fell - a claim relatives dispute.
Author: peterperfect, 16 Mar 2013 09:43:35
Vatican Denies Dirty War Allegations against Pope
The powers of evil in this world will always try to bring a good man low it is in their interest to keep chaos reigning, a kind of "divide and rule". These powers are real. Unfortunately we all have skeletons in the cupboard, not one of us is squeaky clean, we should expect this in even the Pope, what matters is not what is past but what he does from now on in. If he was as clean and innocent as people expect him to be we would be in the age of "the second coming" but no, he is a man with all our human failings.
Author: Seedy, 16 Mar 2013 10:14:53
Vatican Denies Dirty War Allegations against Pope
So, PP: your "human failings" include being in a position of power and influence but keeping quiet while your people are tortured, murdered, their babies stolen to give to your cronies and while other REAL priests are standing up to be counted - and even being killed for it? If this is what makes a "good man" in your eyes then that trip to your optician is long overdue.....
"What is past" is what makes us what are now, which in turn determines what we do in the future. Now the world's eyes are on him, you can bet he'll think more carefully before he gives tacit support to dictators, torturers and murderers. Did anything change inside him as the white smoke billowed out of that chimney and did he even give a moment's thought to the same smoke which hovered over Auschwitz, Belsen and elsewhere while so many "good men" kept silent and closed their eyes?
Author: peterperfect, 17 Mar 2013 10:07:27
Vatican Denies Dirty War Allegations against Pope
Seedy, I am not condoning what he has done only stating a fact - that we ALL have past and that no-one is pure. That is why God sent his son into the world, to bring forgiveness to us ALL, that includes the Pope as well. We all have a dark past, some maybe darker than others but we all have things we are ashamed of and would rather it not come into the light, if this man needs to be "punished" perhaps exposure of his past may be that punishment but what does that actually achieve? Rather allow him to create a culture within the church to improve these things, to allow him to remove barriers and create transparency, this would be so much more than raking up his past. That is what I meant by saying what he does in the future is more important.
Author: Seedy, 17 Mar 2013 12:07:59
Vatican Denies Dirty War Allegations against Pope
So having a pope who is a hypocrite is okay as long as he stops doing it now we're all watching him? If I committed a crime yesterday, is it now expunged because I avoided detection until today?
Sorry, that just doesn't wash with me but no doubt his Imaginary Friend and the be-frocked lackeys in the Vatican will grant him absolution, as long as he doesn't rock the Good Ship Superstition too much.....
Author: peterperfect, 18 Mar 2013 09:59:58
Vatican Denies Dirty War Allegations against Pope
Seedy, I so hope and pray that the day you have to meet your maker yo not only remember your words but they come home to roost, how can you expect forgiveness if you cannot forgive yourself? You obviously have done nothing wrong in your life, not even a teeny weeny bit. Remember also that what you are accusing this man of, so far, is only innuendos, but you have already condemned him!!! By the way, I am not even defending this man from a position of Catholic faith as I am not a Catholic but I understand that this man has now a position of great authority and he comes from a very different background to others in the Vatican and now has the chance to change things for the better - whatever his past (turns out to be). I have found in life, and I have lived a few years, that peoples backgrounds do influence their thinking, their feelings and their actions, sometimes it motivates them to make things better, sometimes the opposite. Time will tell what thsi man will do but ask yourself "what about me?"
Send to Kindle
