Pope Francis orders Vatican to open files on Argentina dictatorship [View all]
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 Argentinas 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 popes 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 Argentinas 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 nuncios 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