Gonzalez: Pope Francis’ disputed role in Argentina’s Dirty War raises questions

NEW YORK
New York Daily News

Argentina’s best-known investigative reporter, Horacio Verbitsky, accuses the pontiff, who is also known as Jorge Mario Bergoglio, of allowing two priests who served under him to be kidnapped. The pope, as well as some human rights activists, disputes that account, contending he actually tried to get them freed.

NEW YORK DAILY NEWS

Thursday, March 14, 2013

Juan Gonzalez

Even as millions rejoice at the first Catholic pontiff from Latin America, troubling questions persist over the role Pope Francis played during Argentina’s notorious Dirty War.

In 1976, right-wing military leaders overthrew that country’s elected government and installed Gen. Jorge Rafael Videla as dictator. Coup leaders then launched a campaign of secret kidnappings, torture and murder of suspected leftists and opposition figures. Estimates of the dead range up to 30,000.

Jorge Mario Bergoglio, then head of that country’s Jesuit order, has long been accused by…