AUSTRALIA
News 24
Sydney – Australia’s most senior Catholic cleric on Friday spoke out about controversy over the role of Pope Francis under Argentina’s military junta, calling it “a smear and lie”.
Argentine cardinal Jorge Mario Bergoglio’s election as the new pontiff has revived examination of the part he played during the dark days of his homeland’s “Dirty War”, when he was a leading member of the Jesuits.
Some accuse him and his country’s Church of having been too close to the brutal right-wing junta in power between 1976 and 1983.
But Sydney Archbishop George Pell, one of the men who took part in the conclave to elect the new pope, said it was old slander.
Asked by ABC radio whether the pope should make a statement to address the concerns, Pell replied: “No, not at all.
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