Pope Francis collaborated with the brutal and bloody military junta during Argentina’s “Dirty War,” allowed two left-leaning Jesuit priests to be kidnapped and tortured, did little to help those who “disappeared” while the country was under right-wing military rule, and criticized the brave left-wing opponents of the brutal military dictatorship.
As head of the Jesuit order, Jorge Bergoglio, now Pope Francis, backed the military dictatorship in Argentina during the late 1970’s and early 1980’s. The so-called “Dirty War,” officially known as the Process of National Reorganization, was a vicious right-wing campaign aimed at the elimination of Communists and others seen as “subversives.”
The brutal right-wing regime claimed the lives of at least nine thousand people and as many as thirty thousand people, many of them killed in the most gruesome circumstances imaginable. Pregnant women were often held until they gave birth, whereupon they were secretly killed, their babies handed over to childless military families and others close to the regime for adoption.
Human rights investigators confirm Pope Francis pointed out left-leaning priests to the military as dissidents, allowed two of his own Jesuit priests to be rounded up and tortured by death squads, and refused to intervene when families begged him to help find infants kidnapped by the ruthless regime.
In October of 2012, the bishops of Argentina, led by Pope Francis, published an apology in which they acknowledged that the Catholic church had failed the citizens of Argentina during the bloody military dictatorship.
Pope Francis refused to give evidence in open court concerning his involvement in the events of the “Dirty War” until 2010. His answers were considered to be evasive by many.
There is no doubt that it was dangerous to speak out against the military junta during the “Dirty War.” To do so one risked being labelled a subversive, and an enemy of the state. Nevertheless, many did speak out against the evil, including left-leaning Catholic nuns, priests and bishops. Many of those brave enough to speak out against the regime were subsequently “disappeared.” The fact that Pope Francis collaborated with the monsters, and remained silent in the midst of such horrific atrocities, reflects a moral failure of the highest order.
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