Argentine Nobel peace laureate Esquivel defends Pope
March 22, 2013 - Argentine Nobel peace laureate, Adolfo Perez Esquivel defended Pope
Francis on Thursday against accusations he failed to speak out against repression
during the 1976-83 military dictatorship in their native Argentina, saying he preferred
"silent diplomacy". Links between some high-ranking Roman Catholic clergymen and
the U.S-backed military regime that kidnapped and killed up to 30,000 leftists between
1976 and 1983 tarnished the Church's reputation in Argentina and the wounds have yet
to heal. Critics of Pope Francis say that in his then role, he failed to protect
priests who challenged the junta and has said too little about the complicity of the
Church during military rule. "The pope had nothing to do with the dictatorship. He
was not an accomplice of the dictatorship," Esquivel told reporters after a 30-minute
meeting with Pope Francis in the Vatican. "He preferred a silent diplomacy, to ask
about the missing, about the oppressed. There is no proof that he was an accomplice
because he was never an accomplice. Of this I am sure," said Esquivel, who won the
Nobel Peace Prize in 1980 for defending human rights in Argentina during the dictatorship.
The pope, formerly Jorge Bergoglio, was not a bishop during the dictatorship but was
a priest. He headed the Jesuit order in Argentina between 1973-1979 and was appointed
a bishop in 1992. The Vatican has denied the charges. (Source: Reuters)