Another False Hope

The Vatican Conclave has just elected a new Pope, Argentinian Jorge Mario Bergoglio, known as Francis I.

Many see him as a humble and pious man and as a reformer who could clean up the Catholic Church’s image as a corrupt institution of money laundering, pedophile-sheltering, and secret gay prostitution rings.

But a peek into this new pope’s past shows that this man has some pretty nasty skeletons in his closet. 

Jorge Mario Bergoglio was the highest ranking Jesuit in Argentina during the military dictatorship of General Jorge Videla (1976-1983).

During that time, he became the bishop and archbishop of Buenos Aires. Pope John Paul II elevated him to a Cardinal in 2001.

During the military junta’s rule, any and all enemies of the regime were hunted down, killed and disappeared during what was known as the “Dirty War.” 

This war on any elements which the regime saw as enemies was part of the greater “Operation Condor,” supported by the US.  Numerous priests and nuns who opposed the military regime of Videla were assassinated.

The Argentinian military junta was pro-US and Wall St. friendly. It appointed Alfredo Martinez de Hoz as minister of the economy, who was a close friend of David Rockefeller.

The vulture capitalist economic policies imposed on Argentina by the military government were a carbon-copy of the ones adopted by Augusto Pinochet’s dictatorship in Chile.

During this time, the Catholic hierarchy, together with the wealthy elites of Argentina, supported the junta. Cardinal Bergoglio  was accused of forcing priests who showed leftist tendencies and who criticized the military regime to leave their pastoral work, and may have been involved in the apprehension and death of two members of the Society of Jesus, Jesus Francisco Jalics and Orlando Yorio.

The church was well-aware of murders the military junta was perpetrating but did not do anything against it. They lent the junta public support as guardians against communism.

That this same junta was supported by the US government and Cardinal Bergoglio has major implications. This new pope is a blessing for the US, since he shares their world view, condemned Liberation Theology and is willing to look the other way while people are slaughtered by the powers-that-be and their allied regimes.

Cardinal Bergoglio has of course denied the charges leveled against him, has refused to appear in court on earlier occasions, and up until his election as Pope was due to testify in a trial to consider the crimes committed under Operation Condor, coordinated by US-backed American dictatorships in the 1970s and 1980s to apprehend, torture and kill tens of thousands of opponents of those regimes. This trial opened on March 5, 2013, a week before Bergoglio was appointed Pope. This is quite convenient for him, to say the least.

But when confronted with his shady past, Bergoglio and his defenders will immediately deny his involvement with the military junta, or will try to excuse his behavior by saying that the Cardinal was afraid for his life and had to cooperate, even though he did not want to. This itself is just a cop-out, or an outright lie.

For proof of the invalidity of Bergoglio's arguments, one not need look further than Cardinal Raul Silva Hernandez in Chile, who publicly condemned the Pinochet dictatorship, thereby curbing some of its violent excesses. Nothing happened to Cardinal Hernandez. He was not threatened or locked up or killed. 

So Cardinal Bergoglio's excuses are either false, and he willingly colluded with the junta, or he at the very least is a spiritual and moral coward for not having the courage to stand against the Argentinian junta. Whatever the case, he is not someone who is fit to be Pope.

Considering these black marks on Cardinal Bergoglio’s record, it is safe to say that the world should not expect any meaningful reforms under his reign.

He claims his place with Pius XII and the recently-resigned Pope Benedict XVI; one a Fascist sympathizer and apologist and the other an ex-Hitler Youth member. Pope Francis I is in good company.

His austere habits and humble persona may be just a PR front to make him appear down-to-earth and endearing to the public, so as to cover up his past complicity in kidnapping and murder.

Those who see in this new Pope any hope of change or a champion of major reforms within the church need not look further than the last king of false hope and change, Barack Obama. He promised so much but delivered nothing of any substance to anyone, except the rich and the Wall St. vultures.

The Vatican is an ancient institution. It has been around for 1,300 years. It has its own customs, traditions, laws and mentality, closed off from the rest of the world and surrounded by enormous wealth (most of it ill-gotten). It is set in its ways, by which it has survived for over a millennium. To think that they will do anything to change its culture would for them be nothing less than capitulation.

Any true reform or change would expose the rot and corruption hidden within the Vatican and risk its survival. The Popes, Cardinals and Bishops who rule that place will never let it happen, for they are the beneficiaries of this system. Their number one priority is to protect and perpetuate it, AS IS! If they try to change it, they will end up shooting themselves in the foot.

The biggest losers from this whole Papal charade are the naïve fools who worship the Pope and mass on St. Peter’s square to see him.

With the election of Pope Francis I, the US government also has a spiritual ally in one of the most powerful posts in the world. If he dances to their tune, I won’t be surprised.