VATICAN CITY
Reuters
By Philip Pullella
VATICAN CITY | Thu Mar 21, 2013
(Reuters) – Nobel Peace Prize winner Adolfo Perez Esquivel defended Pope Francis on Thursday against accusations he failed to speak out against repression during the 1976-83 military dictatorship in their native Argentina, saying he preferred “silent diplomacy”.
Links between some high-ranking Roman Catholic clergymen and the U.S-backed military regime that kidnapped and killed up to 30,000 leftists between 1976 and 1983 tarnished the Church’s reputation in Argentina and the wounds have yet to heal.
Critics of Pope Francis say that in his then role, he failed to protect priests who challenged the junta and has said too little about the complicity of the Church during military rule.
“The pope had nothing to do with the dictatorship. He was not an accomplice of the dictatorship,” Esquivel told reporters after a 30-minute meeting with Francis in the Vatican.
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