Regardless of who prevails in
the US election today, many observers forecast a rocky relationship
ahead with the Vatican.
But Pope Francis has a lifetime of experience
dealing with difficult leaders, reports Crux.
Yet for Pope Francis, generally regarded as a savvy politician, that won’t be anything new: First as a Jesuit superior, then as a leading prelate of his native Argentine Church, he’s got a lifetime of experience dealing with difficult leaders.
Ahead of today’s result, it’s worth looking at how Francis has navigated tense political situations back home.
The young Jesuit provincial vs the military regime
Back in 2013, the early euphoria over Pope Francis, who became an instant media star, was leavened to some extent with reports of his alleged collaboration with Argentina’s last military dictatorship. By now, however, those rumours have largely been laid to rest.
It’s been thoroughly documented that during the 1976-1983 dictatorship that led to thousands of desaparecidos, meaning, people kidnapped, tortured, and killed by the regime and the police, Fr Jorge Mario Bergoglio had his own version of Schindler’s List.
Months after his election, Italian journalist Nello Scavo published a book titled Bergoglio’s List, documenting multiple cases in which the future pope had secretly helped victims of the military regime, at times at the risk of his own life.
Scavo writes that later, as an archbishop, Bergoglio saved as many as a thousand targets of the military dictatorship by providing shelter in a Jesuit college, passing them off as seminarians or laity on retreat, then helping them move out of Argentina.
He even cites a time in which the future pope gave his own passport to someone to make his escape.