The Vatican denies Pope Francis collaborated with brutal military dictators during Argentina’s anti-Communist reign of terror three decades ago.
Jesuit Father Federico Lombardi, the Vatican spokesman, released a statement on March 15, denouncing allegations that Pope Francis collaborated with the brutal military junta responsible for kidnapping and killing thousands of people in Argentina’s “Dirty War.”
Critics claim Francis not only tacitly endorsed the government’s brutality during Argentina’s military dictatorship, but also collaborated with the military junta in the kidnappings of two Jesuit priests.
However, the Vatican denies allegations that the future pope failed to protect the two young Jesuit priests – Fathers Orlando Yorio and Francisco Jalics – from kidnapping by Argentina’s military junta in 1976, claiming such allegations are the product of an “anti-clerical left-wing” media campaign.
Human rights investigators claim Pope Francis not only allowed two of his own Jesuit priests to be rounded up and tortured by death squads, but also pointed out left-leaning priests to the military as dissidents, and refused to intervene when families begged him to help find infants kidnapped by the ruthless regime.
Argentina’s 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 “left-wing subversives.”
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.
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