NPR did a pretty even-handed job yesterday of discussing the complaints that Pope Francis, when he was Cardinal Bergoglio of Argentina, was somehow involved in atrocities during the Dirty War, or that he didn’t do enough. Host Audie Cornish says (emphasis mine):
Some human rights activists argue that his silence hurt investigations in the Dirty War’s aftermath, while other accounts reveal that the Pope took major risks to save the persecuted.
A few things that NPR didn’t mention: One activist who has “argued” (not proven) that his silence hurt investigation is one Horacio Verbitsky, author of the book El Silencio. Verbistky was a leftist guerrilla commander who shot people, so, yeah, he should know about atrocities.
They also didn’t mention that other accounts that “reveal” that he took major risks include Amnesty International, who, according to a source in this CNN report, cleared Bergoglio of any wrongdoing. NPR did interview Michael Warren, Buenos Aires bureau chief for the Associated Press, who said that
Adolfo Perez Esquivel … won the Nobel Peace Prize for his Argentine human rights work. And he said Bergoglio was no accomplice of the dictatorship.
So, a B-minus job, NPR. You had to listen closely to hear how shaky are the accusations against Bergoglio, but it was a reassuring story in general.
