the dirty war

Did the New Pope Help a Dictatorship?

An Argentine journalist writes about his compliance.

It's been only a few hours since Argentine Cardinal Jorge Bergoglio was appointed pope and his critics are coming to bat. While Argentina was in the grips of the “dirty war” of the ’70s, many say the country’s Catholic Church leadership was complacent and even supportive of the brutal dictatorship. In El Silencio, journalist Horacio Verbitsky claims that Bergoglio helped hide the regime's political prisoners in the his holiday home, keeping them away from a human rights commission. Next month, ex-general Jorge Videla will be brought to court again for the killing of a bishop in 1976, and church authorities are preparing to be called into the witness box.