Quinn, the Pope and what Amnesty really said

In Blog, Politicsby Fedayn6 Comments

Bergoglio & Videla (head of the Junta)

Bergoglio & Videla (head of the Junta)

In an article in the Irish Catholic, under the heading ‘Pope Francis and the Argentinian Junta: The Pontiff has no case to answer’, David Quinn rests his case on an Amnesty Argentina statement. rabble begs to differ.

In the article (available here) Quinn, (the conservative Director of the Iona Institute and regular contributor to the Irish Independent),  lists some of the claims against the new Pope.

‘The new Pope is accused of not doing enough, or even worse, of paving the way for the military to kidnap and torture two of his fellow Jesuits who were involved in the political resistance to the regime.’

He refutes all calls on Bergoglio for a statement on his past, including those made in The Times of London, on the premise that :

‘Indeed, according to John Allen, the well-known Vatican correspondent, Amnesty International in Argentina says the Pope has no case to answer.’

rabble contacted Amnesty International Argentina. Daniel Gutman, Argentina co-ordinator, informed us that Amnesty never released a statement concerning the role that Bergoglio played during the last military dictatorship in Argentina. Further:

‘We take no position on the person who holds the position of Pope, or how he is chosen. Regarding Jorge Bergoglio’s role during the military regime, no imputation or formal charge has been made against Jorge Mario Bergoglio and we have no record in our archives of any involvement of him in other cases. Any possible links between Bergoglo and the commission of human rights violations must be investigated impartially and independently as in the case of any other person. We cannot grant or deny credibility to such possible links.’

So claiming that the ‘Pontiff has no case to answer’ is both premature and unreasonable. Let us have a formal investigation and let us not attribute to Amnesty what they never said in his defence.

Comments

  1. Amnesty International in Argentina should sue Quinn for telling lies about them , hell Quinn does it for nothing sowhy not?

  2. David Quinn is not the one guilty of misinformation here over the Pope. He appears to have left it open ended and the AI Argentina quote is not from him. The misinformation Quinn printed is that Argentina ‘invaded’ a place called ‘The Falklands’

  3. Pingback: The Pope needs better allies : rabble

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