ARGENTINA
U-T San Diego
By The Associated Press
Pope Francis has been criticized by some for his actions years ago during Argentina’s “Dirty War.”
Many Argentines remain angry over the Catholic Church’s acknowledged failure to openly confront a right-wing dictatorship after a 1976 coup that was kidnapping and killing thousands of its citizens as it sought to eliminate “subversive elements.”
Under his leadership, Argentina’s bishops issued a collective apology in October 2012 for the church’s failures to protect its flock during the 1970s. But the statement blamed the era’s violence in roughly equal measure on both the junta and its enemies.
That statement came far too late for some activists, who accused Bergoglio of being more concerned about the church’s image than about aiding human rights investigations in Argentina.
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