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Judi Lynn

(160,211 posts)
Wed Apr 29, 2015, 03:20 PM Apr 2015

Pope Francis orders Vatican to open files on Argentina dictatorship

Source: Guardian

Pope Francis orders Vatican to open files on Argentina dictatorship

  • Papal nuncio had close relationship with 1976-83 military junta
  • Argentinian pontiff acts after meeting with one of mothers of ‘disappeared’

    Uki Goñi in Buenos Aires
    Wednesday 29 April 2015 15.01 EDT

    Pope Francis has ordered the Vatican to open its files on Argentina’s military dictatorship, a move that could help the families of thousands of victims of the military regime finally discover the fate of their loved ones.

    “This is the pope’s wish – for something to be done – so he has asked the secretariat of state to take charge of it, and work has already begun on declassifying the Vatican archives related to Argentina’s dictatorship,” Father Guillermo Karcher, an Argentinian priest who is a close aide of the pope, said in an interview with a Buenos Aires radio station.

    During the 1976-83 dictatorship, 20,000 people were made to “disappear” by the Argentinian authorities, who saw them as subversives. The Vatican collected a large amount of information on these cases, principally through the papal nuncio’s office in Buenos Aires.

    The pope acceded to the opening of the Vatican archives at a meeting last week with Lita Boitano, the 83-year-old mother of two sons who were “disappeared” during the dictatorship.




    Read more: http://www.theguardian.com/world/2015/apr/29/pope-francis-argentina-orders-vatican-open-files-dictatorship
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    Hekate

    (90,189 posts)
    2. YESSS! Pope Francis is already transformative. The Church won't know what hit it by the time...
    Wed Apr 29, 2015, 04:41 PM
    Apr 2015

    ...by the time he's done. Long may he reign.

     

    happyslug

    (14,779 posts)
    4. All organization do
    Wed Apr 29, 2015, 10:01 PM
    Apr 2015

    Last edited Wed May 6, 2015, 10:12 AM - Edit history (1)

    These can be financial records. Private letters. Reports the organization does not want out for it may cause someone some hurt.

    As to the Vatican and Argentina it may involve the arbitration the Vatican did between Chile and Argentina in regards to the straits of Magellan.

    Before someone else brings it up it can cover any pedophilia cases AND who ended up with whose child during the terror of the 1970s. Children of executed lefties were given to right wing families to adopt during that time period.

    This would be in addition to any secret messages given to the Vatican by members of the Junta that was ruling Argentina at that time period.

    I work for a non profit and we have Secret records. What our clients have told us. What we have learned about other people over the years . Nothing most people will want to know, but some would so it can be used against someone else. Thus we keep it "confidential" the word used for "secret" and "classified" in the business world.

    shrike

    (3,817 posts)
    8. The Vatican is also a city-state
    Thu Apr 30, 2015, 11:13 AM
    Apr 2015

    With its own charter, diplomats and presence at the United States. So, no, it is not surprising it has classified documents.

    Judi Lynn

    (160,211 posts)
    6. Some of the clergy in Argentina have a horrendous part they played during the Dirty War.
    Thu Apr 30, 2015, 12:16 AM
    Apr 2015

    From previous articles:


    Argentine Church Faces ‘Dirty War’ Past


    [font size=1]
    A member of Mothers of May Plaza, a group that has pushed for answers about the dirty war. They wore scarves with
    names of the disappeared at the trial of the Rev. Christian von Wernich.

    By ALEXEI BARRIONUEVO
    Published: September 17, 2007
    [/font]
    LA PLATA, Argentina, Sept. 10 — A simple wooden cross hanging from his neck, the Rev. Rubén Capitanio sat before a microphone on Monday and did what few Argentine priests before him had dared to do: condemn the Roman Catholic Church for its complicity in the atrocities committed during Argentina’s “dirty war.”


    [font size=1]
    Juan Mabromata/A.F.P.
    — Getty Images

    Father von Wernich is accused of
    conspiring with the military during
    Argentina’s dirty war.
    [/font]
    Father von Wernich is accused of conspiring with the military during Argentina’s dirty war.
    “The attitude of the church was scandalously close to the dictatorship” that killed more than 15,000 Argentines and tortured tens of thousands more, the priest told a panel of three judges here, “to such an extent that I would say it was of a sinful degree.” The panel is deciding the fate of the Rev. Christian von Wernich, a priest accused of conspiring with the military who has become for many a powerful symbol of the church’s role.

    Some three months of often chilling testimony in the trial illustrated how closely some Argentine priests worked with military leaders during the dirty war. Witnesses spoke about how Father von Wernich was present at torture sessions in clandestine detention centers. They said he extracted confessions to help the military root out perceived enemies, while at the same time offering comforting words and hope to family members searching for loved ones who had been kidnapped by the government.

    <snip>

    Hernán Brienza, a journalist who helped find the priest in Chile and wrote a book about the case, said he believed that about 30 other Argentine priests, some already dead, could have been brought up on human rights charges for their involvement in torture.

    <snip>

    In Argentina, however, there was a much tighter relationship between the clergy and the military than existed in Chile or Brazil. “Patriotism came to be associated with Catholicism,” said Kenneth P. Serbin, a history professor at the University of San Diego who has written about the Roman Catholic Church in South America. “So it was almost natural for the Argentine clergy to come to the defense of the authoritarian regime.”

    More:
    http://www.nytimes.com/2007/09/17/world/americas/17church.html?_r=0

    [center]~ ~ ~




    [/center]

    Judi Lynn

    (160,211 posts)
    9. Pope Francis Will Open Argentinian 'Dirty War' Files
    Wed May 6, 2015, 05:25 AM
    May 2015

    Pope Francis Will Open Argentinian 'Dirty War' Files

    Will Vatican files shed light on disappeared in Argentina?

    May 5, 2015

    Pope Francis continues to surprise. He recently slammed wage inequality between men and women as "a pure scandal," called climate change man's "slap in the face of nature" and beckoned the homeless to tour the Sistine Chapel..

    Then there was his self-effacing quip about his compatriots' famous egos, saying that many Argentines were surprised he took the name Francis and not "Jesus II."

    But the pontiff's fellow Argentines may find his latest strike to be his brassiest yet: He has asked the Vatican to open its archives on the Argentine Dirty War, papal adviser Guillermo Karcher told Radio America this week.

    This is a big deal for at least a couple of reasons. First, as many as 30,000 people — no one knows for sure — died or disappeared during one of Latin America's most infamous dictatorships, which lasted from 1976 to 1983.

    More:
    http://www.courant.com/opinion/op-ed/hc-op-margolis-pope-francis-argentina-0505-20150504-story.html

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