BUENOS AIRES, Argentina - The elevation Wednesday of Argentine Cardinal Jorge Bergoglio as the Roman Catholic Church's 267th pope served as a reminder of the church's role during the region's dark days of dictatorship in the latter half of the 20th century.
Born in Buenos Aires in 1936, Bergoglio, 76, was 40 when Argentina's military overthrew the government of Isabel Peron and instigated what became known as the "Dirty War," during which as many as 30,000 people, most of them accused of being leftists, "disappeared."
Like many priests his age, he has been accused of not doing enough to protest the carnage.
In 2005, Argentine author Horacio Verbitzsky, whose books have detailed what he said was the church's involvement in the Dirty War, accused Bergoglio of failing to protect two fellow Jesuits who opposed the junta. The Jesuits vanished and were presumed to killed by security forces. Bergoglio was never charged in subsequent years, nor has any hard evidence emerged of his involvement. But the charge has lingered largely because of Verbitzsky's prominence.
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More recently, Bergoglio has been known for his confrontations with Argentina's last two presidents, the husband and wife team of Nestor and Cristina Kirchner.
Nestor Kirchner, who died in 2010, famously accused then-Cardinal Bergoglio of being "the true leader of the opposition." During Argentina's financial meltdown in 2001 and 2002, Bergoglio was a constant voice for the poor. He lamented the rising poverty in Buenos Aires, noting that residents there "take better care of a dog than a brother."
Bergoglio also was cool to Kirchner's efforts to annul amnesty laws that protected those accused of crimes during the Dirty War. Among the first people to be tried after the laws were abolished was a Catholic police chaplain. Christian von Wernich was convicted and sentenced in 2007 by a federal court for participating in a series of crimes it said were "akin to genocide." At that time of the trial, Bergoglio headed Argentina's Conference of Bishops.
A common theme during the trial was the church's inaction.
In a cable to Washington dated Oct. 11, 2007, Tony Wayne, then the U.S. ambassador to Argentina, noted the heavy political content of the case and the possible effect on Cardinal Bergoglio's ability to oppose Kirchner's policies.
"Many on the political left allege the church was complicit … and believe the church has failed to account or atone for its actions," the cable said. "The church has … sought to distance itself from the unauthorized, maverick operations of rogue priests. Nonetheless, at a time when some observers consider Roman Catholic primate Cardinal Bergoglio to be a leader of the opposition to the Kirchner administration … the Von Wernich case could also have the effect, some believe, of undermining the church's (and, by extension, Cardinal Bergoglio's) moral authority."
Relations with Cristina Fernandez de Kirchner, who succeeded her husband, remain tense, largely over Fernandez's championing of same-sex marriage, which Bergoglio vehemently opposes.
