Pope Francis 1 and the dictatorship in Argentina

So was Pope Francis I an accomplice of the 1976-1983 dictatorship in Argentina? It’s impossible to be sure but  on the basis of the evidence before us the  accusation looks like bullshit. The government has made great efforts to find something that would gravely compromise him, without much success. Of course as a prominent Jesuit at the time he did have to make nice with the generals, as did everyone else. But if Argentine people are going to have to say sorry for what they did between 1976 and 1983 when the queue to do so is formed he’s going to be standing well behind many members and supporters of the government.

Bergoglio’s chief sin in the eyes of the government has been his refusal to chant praise of Néstor Kirchner and Cristina Fernández and not support it in its struggle with the farming sector in 2008.  Had he proved a bit more compliant with the wishes of our current secular saviors then they’d be hailing him as a hero of the struggle for human rights in Argentina.

It’s also important to remember that his chief accuser is Horacio Verbitsky,  a prominent  terrorist in the 1960s and 1970s and now a kind of strategist in the shadows for the government. In theory,  Verbitsky is  a journalist but in fact he is someone with full access to the state intelligence services, so you’d imagine that if they had anything serious on him it would have come to light by now.

The nub of the allegations is that Bergoglio failed to protect two of his subordinates in the Jesuit order,  the   priests Orlando Yorio and  Francisco Jalics, who were kidnapped and tortured by the regime in May, 1976. But protect them how?  By the time the men were kidnapped  the armed forces had already taken full control of the country and were conducting a campaign of repression unprecedented in its savagery in Argentina’s history. And it was a campaign that was no respecter of the cloth; it was eventually to take the lives of two bishops, Angelleli and Ponce de Léon. So the idea that a word from Bergoglio could have protected the two priests from the blood drenched psychopaths of the Argentine Navy is rather fanciful.

The evidence doesn’t suggest that Bergoglio behaved either heroically or ignobly but rather that, like most people would do  in such circumstances, he tried to keep his head down and not get swept away  by the horror rolling across the country at the time.

A final point, in the discussion regarding the very real complicity of the hierarchy of the Roman Catholic Church with the dictatorship, it tends to be forgotten that the hierarchy isn’t the Church, the Church is all the faithful. Many of the leaders and foot soldiers of the “Montoneros”  terrorist organization were devout Catholics and were heavily influenced by liberation theology.

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Argentina Joins Iran in Fight Against Zionism

Yesterday the President of Argentina in her speech to open the new session of Congress  in effect publicly endorsed Iran’s state ideology of resistance to what it regards as global Jewish power. She chided Israel for, in her view, its lack of interest in the destruction of its embassy here in 1992 compared with its excessive interest in the AMIA attack; nudge nudge  wink wink, what are they trying to hide?

She also said that Jewish community leaders had participated in the cover up of the AMIA attack. As if   those leaders had a decisive effect on the actions of the Argentine state, a state run by her party when the attack took place in 1994 and for all except two years of the intervening period, and indeed, run by her and her late husband for almost the last ten years.

If you are a Jewish Argentine you now know that you can be killed with impunity, and that’s regardless of who actually blew up the AMIA.  Everyone now knows that mass murder of Jews here mainly leads to criticism of Jews and accusations against Jews.

If you are a Jewish Argentine with a public profile don’t oppose the government unless you want  to be  accused of participating in murderous conspiracies.

If you are a Jewish Argentine with a public profile and you want to get on in life now would be a good moment to start condemning Zionism and Israel. That’ll help your career a lot and you’ll feel great about yourself.

So one of the main pillars of Argentine foreign policy for the remainder of this government at least,  will be to support the efforts of Iran to attack and weaken “global Zionist power”. Think about that for a moment, if you haven’t already.