For the first time since the election of Pope Francis, the Vatican on Friday formally defended him from
accusations that, decades ago, in the so-called Dirty War in his home
country of Argentina, he knew about serious human rights abuses but
failed to do enough to halt them.
The Rev. Federico Lombardi, the Vatican spokesman, said there had “never
been a credible accusation against him” relating to the period in the
1970s when he was the superior of the Jesuit order in Argentina.
Indeed, “there have been many declarations of how much he did for many
people to protect them from the military dictatorship,” Father Lombardi
said in a statement at a news conference.
“The accusations belong to the use of a historical-social analysis of
facts for many years by the anticlerical left to attack the church and
must be rejected decisively.”
Pope Francis, the former Cardinal Jorge Mario Bergoglio
of Buenos Aires, was elected by fellow cardinals on Wednesday and much
of his behavior since then has seemed to indicate a shift of tone at the
Vatican to a more humble and frugal approach.
When he addressed cardinals on Friday, for instance, he spoke frequently
without notes, addressing them as “Brother Cardinals” rather than as
the more usual “Lord Cardinals” and the Vatican press office highlighted
other shows of modesty and lack of formality since his election.
But the question of his past has never been far below the surface,
rekindling accusations relating to a conflict in which as many as 30,000
people were disappeared, tortured or killed by the dictatorship.
At the news conference on Friday, Father Lombardi repeated assertions by
a prominent human rights campaigner that there had been “no compromise
by Cardinal Bergoglio with the dictatorship.”
The debate has simmered in Argentina, with journalists there publishing
articles and books that appear to contradict Cardinal Bergoglio’s
account of his actions. These accounts draw not only on documents from
the period, but also on statements by priests and lay workers who
clashed with Cardinal Bergoglio.
After the church had denied for years any involvement with the
dictatorship, he testified in 2010 that he had met secretly with Gen.
Jorge Videla, the former head of the military junta, and Adm. Emilio
Massera, the commander of the navy, to ask for the release of two
kidnapped priests.
The following year, prosecutors called him to the
witness stand to testify on the military junta’s systematic kidnapping
of children, a subject he was also accused of knowing about but failing
to prevent.
In a long interview published by an Argentine newspaper in 2010, Francis
— then still a cardinal — said that he had helped hide people being
sought for arrest or disappearance by the military because of their
political views, had helped others leave Argentina and had lobbied the
country’s military rulers directly for the release and protection of
others.
The renewed discussion of the case intruded into a day when Francis earlier offered warm praise on Friday to his predecessor, Benedict XVI,
saying that his nearly eight years as leader of the world’s 1.2 billion
Roman Catholics had “lit a flame in the depths of our hearts.”
Speaking to the church’s cardinals, he urged them to persevere and find
ways to spread word of their faith around the world.
“Let us not give in to pessimism, to that bitterness that the devil
offers us every day,” he said. But he offered no direct allusion to the
myriad challenges facing the Vatican from a series of sexual abuse,
financial and other scandals that swamped much of Benedict’s papacy.
According to the officials, Francis frequently extemporizes, making it
more difficult for the papal press office to deliver texts of addresses
like Friday’s.
“That’s the cost of having such spontaneity,” said Rev. Thomas Rosica, a Vatican spokesman.
But there was one clearly unchoreographed moment. Francis, 76, stumbled
briefly as he greeted the dean of the College of Cardinals, Angelo Sodano, but swiftly recovered.
The pope also sent a message on Friday to Rome’s chief rabbi, saying he
wished to pursue closer ties between Catholics and Jews.
“I hope very much to be able to contribute to the progress in relations
between Jews and Catholics” since the Second Vatican Council in the
early 1960s, the pope said in a message to the rabbi, Riccardo di Segni.
Francis is the first non-European pope for over 1,200 years and the
first from the Americas.
In a further display of his embrace of the
poor, Vatican officials said on Friday that Francis had urged bishops
and the faithful in Argentina not to spend money on a long journey to
attend his formal inauguration next Tuesday but to make a donation to
the poor.
In his first audience with the cardinals, Francis told them that
Benedict’s papacy and teachings had “enriched and invigorated” the
Catholic Church and had “lit a flame in the depths of our hearts that
will continue to burn because it is fueled by his prayers that will
support the church on its missionary path.”
Vatican officials said the new pope planned at some stage to visit
Benedict at the papal summer retreat at Castel Gandolfo outside Rome,
where he is living while an apartment is made ready for him at the
Vatican. In his retirement, Benedict has said, he plans to live “hidden
to the world.”
Last month, Benedict became the first pope in six centuries to resign,
citing failing powers and old age and precipitating a scramble for the
succession in which Francis was not widely seen as being among the
front-runners. Sometimes speaking without notes, Francis observed Friday
that many of the cardinals were of advanced age, and he told them: “Let
us give this wisdom to young people; like good wine, it becomes better
with age. Let us give to young people the wisdom of life.”
After his remarks, Francis greeted the cardinals one by one, shaking
their hands and hugging some. He also accepted letters and presents from
them, including a yellow bracelet that he immediately wore on his right
wrist.