“Francis was against Argentina’s military” - Nobel Peace Prize winner Perez Esquivel

“Francis was against Argentina’s military” -

Nobel Peace Prize winner Perez Esquivel

 

Adolfo Pérez Esquivel

According to Nobel Peace Prize winner Perez Esquivel who met the Pope today, “Bergoglio was one of the Argentinean dictatorship’s many victims, he is not an accomplice”

Giacomo Galeazzi vatican city Today, the Argentinean intellectual and 1980 Nobel Peace Prize winner, Adolfo Perez Esquivel, met Pope Francis in the Vatican. “Being an accomplice means collaborating with the dictatorship; some bishops, like Mgr. Adolfo Servando Tortolo (castrensian vicar, Archbishop of Parana and President of the Argentinean Bishops’ Conference between 1976 and 1978) were accomplices; I would also like to note that at the time, Bergoglio was not a bishop but a provincial superior of the Argentinean Jesuits,” Perez Esquivel said.

“If it’s true that he didn’t have the courage, as other priests, monks, nuns and bishops did, to lead those who were fighting for human rights, it seems to me he did try to protest against the violation of these rights. We need to se these facts in the context of that terrible period of military dictatorship,” Perez Esquivel said in an interview with Luigi Sandri and Gianni Novelli for the April issue of religious monthly Confronti.
 
Perez Esquivel, a defender of human rights in Argentina, was imprisoned and tortured during the country’s military dictatorship. Bergoglio’s election to the papal throne is a “huge” historical event, Esquivel said. “I remember speaking to the Holy See’s “ambassador” in Argentina, Mgr. Pio Laghi, about the problem of the defence of human rights in Argentina and of nuns and monks who were being put behind bars and tortured. His reply was: “What do you want me to do about it? I am the apostolic nuncio; we protest, we protest to the military, but although they seem as though they are listening, they don’t do what we ask them to do.” Bergoglio and many others were the same; he limited himself to protesting.
 
“I don’t think it’s fair to accuse him of complicity with the dictatorship. Naturally, I understand the resentment felt by the families of the religious that were affected and some say: “Bergoglio didn’t do enough;” they don’t say he “didn’t do,” just that he “didn’t do enough.” This is true if his work is compared to that of certain courageous bishops such as the Bishop of La Rioja, Enrique Angelelli, who was killed on 4 August 1976; Paranaguá’s Novak Alfredo Ernest; the Bishop of Neuquén ,Jaime Nevares and the Bishop of Viedma, Miguel Hesayne, all of whom publicly defended life and human rights on a daily basis.”

According to you, what is the significance of a bishop from the southern hemisphere being elected Pope? “It’s a huge event!” the Nobel Peace Prize winner said. “So it’s a pity that instead of focusing and appreciating the fact that this is the first time the Eurocentric Church is beginning to look at Latin America – a continent which has many prophets, martyrs and individuals who live and proclaim the Gospel – and the world with different eyes, the focus is on attacking Bergoglio; this does not seem like a wise thing to me. I think the Pope’s election needs to be given greater importance as a historical fact.
 
“It’s also important to note that Bergoglio’s Jesuit background makes him a man who is both a skilled administrator and pastor. As such, his first steps as Bishop of Rome are important: on the evening of his election, Bergoglio didn’t immediately bless the crowds in St. Peter’s Square, but asked them to pray for him first. The fact he chose Francis as his papal name says a lot. It reflects his thinking, because the name constitutes a message in itself; it means solidarity with the poor, love for nature, commitment to peace and fraternity. It is a great sign of hope.”
 
Horacio Verbitsky, the Argentinean journalist who criticised Bergoglio for his behaviour during Argentina’s military dictatorship (1976-1983) admitted today, that some fresh statements issued by the Jesuit priest, Francisco Jalics exempt Jorge Bergoglio from all responsibility in the arrest and torture of Jalics by the military.
 
 In an article on page 12 of the daily which published his accusations against the Pope, Verbitsky recalled that Jalics had declared his reconciliation with Bergoglio and “reconciliation is a Catholic sacrament which involves forgiveness for offences committed.” But he also admits that the “new statement goes far beyond that, exempting Bergoglio from all responsibility.” Nevertheless, the journalist added that the priest himself admitted he had thought “the accusations had been made against himself and Orlando Yorio and that it took him a quarter of a century before he arrived at a different conclusion” and before he could say that “it is a mistake to say Bergoglio was responsible for their arrests.”

Finally, Verbitsky recalled that Yorio (now deceased), Jalics and other sources had issued a number of different statements over the years, claiming that not only did the then Fr. Bergoglio do nothing to help free the two priests from prison – they were illegally detained for over five months – but that he had reported them to the dictatorship’s authorities as subversive.

 

Source: The Vatican Insider