Accusations that Pope Francis denounced two priests to Argentina's military junta during the 1970s have been denied by one of the survivors in a boost to the reputation of the new pontiff.Francisco Jalics, who now lives in a German monastery, issued an online statement on Wednesday to clear up what he said were misinterpretations of his earlier comments about the role played by the pope in his five-month incarceration by the navy.He said he was addressing reports that he and another Jesuit Read more [...]

Pope Francis, shown here greeting Argentine President Cristina Fernandez de Kirchner, opposed Argentina's same sex marriage law and briefly suggested civil unions instead.(Photo: L'Osservatore Romano, Getty Images)Before he became Pope Francis, Argentine Cardinal Jorge Bergoglio offered clues to his views on celibacy, on the sexual abuse crisis and on civil unions. He advocated a zero-tolerance approach to clergy abusers in a 2012 conversation with a leading Latin American rabbi. Bergoglio, then Read more [...]

SIMON ROMERO EMILY SCHMALLIn 2010, Argentina was on the verge of approving gay marriage, and Cardinal Jorge Mario Bergoglio led the public charge against the measure. But behind the scenes, in a meeting of bishops, he advocated a highly unorthodox solution: that the church in Argentina support the idea of civil unions for gay couples.The concession, which at the time inflamed the gathering, offers a telling insight into the leadership style he may now bring to the papacy.Few would suggest that Cardinal Read more [...]

2013-03-20 10:00 Pope Francis. (File, AFP) Multimedia   ·   User Galleries   ·   News in Pictures Send us your pictures  Â·  Send us your stories Read more stories aboutPope Francis Buenos Aires - Activists against abuses by Roman Catholic clergy urged Pope Francis on Tuesday to apologise for what Read more [...]

Argentine president Cristina Fernandez de Kirchner speaks to Pope Francis after his inauguration at the Vatican. She once likened his attitude to that of the Inquisition. Photograph: Reuters

Argentina was on the verge of approving gay marriage, and the Roman Catholic Church was desperate to stop that from happening. It would lead tens of thousands of its followers in protest on the streets of Buenos Aires and publicly condemn the proposed law, a direct threat to church teaching, as the work of the devil. But behind the scenes, Cardinal Jorge Mario Bergoglio, who led the public charge against the measure, spoke out in a heated meeting of bishops in 2010 and advocated a highly Read more [...]

The Buenos Aires archbishop’s office didn’t immediately respond Tuesday.The pope’s authorized biographer, Sergio Rubin, told The Associated Press before Jorge Mario Bergoglio was elected pope last week that he had drawn an increasingly tough line on clergy abuse. Bergoglio insisted that accused priests face trial, and imposed a thorough screening process in an attempt to weed out future problems, Rubin said.Nobody has presented evidence that Bergoglio was directly involved covering up sex abuse. Read more [...]

Nobody in early 1976 was aware of the scale of the killing programme that Argentina's military were secretly starting to execute. "At the beginning, we saw the military as saviours who had come to deliver us from the violence of the ultra-right death squads and far left terrorists that had desolated Argentina during the previous government of Isabel Perón," says Robert Cox, the British, former editor of the Buenos Aires Herald.In 1976, the Herald celebrated its centennial anniversary. The Read more [...]

Before he became Pope Francis, Argentina's Catholic leader took the first steps toward granting sainthood status to priests and other Catholics who were murdered in July 1976 as Argentina's dictatorship was killing thousands of so-called "subversives." The Vatican spokesman, the Rev. Federico Lombardi, confirmed Tuesday that it was Jorge Bergoglio who approved the beatification cause of Carlos de Dios Murias, a Franciscan priest killed in Argentina's Read more [...]