Top Human Rights officials in Argentina dismiss collaborator claims about Pope Francis as slander
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:
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.
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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.
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http://www.japantimes.co.jp/news/2013/03/17/world/popes-alleged-inaction-in-argentinas-dirty-war-is-scrutinized/
“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.
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.
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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
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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
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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.
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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!
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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:
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?
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
= new reply since forum marked as read
Of course no apologies will be coming for a corrupt media that was so zealous to spread this calumny. Or from that muckracker Verbitzky.
Thank you 
