Francisco I e a ditadura. Cúmplice ou fez o que podia ?

O Conversa Afiada reproduz trecho do perfil de Francisco I, publicado no New York Times

Em 2005, pouco antes da eleicao de Ratzinger, um advogado argentino acusou Bergoglio de cumplice do sequestro de dois padres jesuitas, cujas atividades de oposicao à ditadura militar lhe pareceram perigosamente heterodoxas.

Os padres, que Bergoglio havia demitido da Ordem jesuitica uma semana antes do sequestro,foram encontrados num suburbio de Buenos Aires drogados e semi-nus.

No processo judicial, o porta-voz do cardeal Bergoglio rejeitou a acusacao como "velha difamacao".

A açao nao prosseguiu, mas jornalistas recolheram depoimentos que contradizem Bergoglio.

Depois de a Igreja negar por muitos anos qualquer envolvimento com os militares, em 2010 ele tetemunhou que esteve com membros da Junta Militar para pedir a libertscao dos padres. No ano seguinte, promotores pediram que Bergoglio  testemunhasse sobre o sistematico sequestro de criancas, uma questao de que é acusado de nao ter evitado,  mesmo tendo conhecimento dela.

Em longa entrevista em 2010, ele defendeu seu comportamento durante a ditadura militar: ele ajudou a esconder  perseguidos; ajudou outros a fugir da Argentina; e intercedeu junto aos militares para libertar ou proteger prisioneiros.

Em novembro de 2012, a Conferencia dos Bispos, que tinha sido presidida por Bergoglio,  repudiou declaracao de Videla, o primeiro presidente da ditaduara, de que a lideranca da Conferencia era cumplice dos atos crimonosos. Em resposta, a Conferencia disse que fez o que estava a seu alcance para conseguir o bem de todos.

A seguir, a  integra dos trechos traduzidos livremente :

He remained in that post through 1979, and his performance during the Dirty War has been the subject of controversy. In 2005, shortly before the Vatican conclave that elevated Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger to the papacy, Cardinal Bergoglio was formally accused by an Argentine lawyer in a lawsuit of being complicit in the military’s kidnapping of two Jesuit priests whose antigovernment views he considered dangerously unorthodox.

The priests, whom he had dismissed from the order a week before they disappeared, were discovered months later on the outskirts of Buenos Aires, drugged and partially undressed. At the time the lawsuit was filed, the cardinal’s spokesman dismissed the accusations as “old slander.”

The lawsuit was eventually dismissed, but the debate has continued, with Argentine journalists 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 the 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, he defended his behavior during the dictatorship. He 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.

Only in November 2012, a year after Cardinal Bergoglio had stepped down as head of the bishops’ conference, did the group address the issue of its role during the dictatorship. It came in response to remarks in which the former dictator, General Videla, had, in the words of the statement the bishops issued, “attributed to those who then led the Conference complicity in criminal acts.” The bishops’ statement denied General Videla’s accusation and claimed that church leaders of the time “tried to do what was within their reach for the welfare of all.”

Por Emily Schmall e Larry Rohter