FALKLAND Islanders yesterday told the new Argentinian Pope to keep his nose
out of their business.
They spoke after Argentina’s president Cristina Kirchner called in a TV
broadcast for Pope Francis I to “carry the message to the great world powers
that they participate in dialogue”.
She was careful not to name the Falklands. But her country’s press was quick
to link her words with her obsession over the islands — which have just
overwhelmingly voted to stay British in a referendum.
Last night Kevin Connolly, who runs Deano’s Bar in capital Stanley, said:
“It’s a bit of a shock after all our celebrations over the referendum.
“If he (the Pope) is a true Argentinian he’ll probably start sounding off.
But that’s them all over!”
Falklands Assembly member Dick Sawle said: “I would certainly be concerned if
he came out in favour of Argentina talking possession of the Falkland
Islands.”
Monsignor Michael McPartland — leader of the islands’ Catholics — said: “If he
were as Pope to make a statement that could be interpreted as supporting the
Argentinians against the Falklands, then I would be very concerned.”
And Falklands Museum worker Leona Roberts said: “He’s a man with enormous
power and influence — I just hope he uses it fairly and wisely.”
The humble 76-year-old pontiff wants to be known simply as Francis — after
St Francis of Assisi. Formerly Buenos Aires Archbishop Jorge Mario
Bergoglio, he was elected Pope on Wednesday by 115 cardinals at the Vatican
in Rome.
In 2011 he said those who died in the 1982 Falklands War had “shed their blood
on Argentinian soil”.
And in a mass on April 2 last year to mark the 30th anniversary of the
Argentinian invasion he said the islands had been “usurped”.
But Vatican insiders say Francis — who could meet PM David Cameron at his
official Vatican inauguration on Tuesday — will swiftly distance himself
from the dispute.
His election as the first non-European leader of the world’s 1.2billion
Catholics was not celebrated unanimously in Argentina. Victims of the
country’s 1976-83 military dictatorship accused him of being “complicit”.
Tens of thousands of supposed dissidents were kidnapped or killed while more
than 500 babies were seized and handed to rich families. Spokeswoman Estela
de la Cuadra said: “The Catholic Church has chosen a person who for us was
complicit in a genocidal government.”
The family of a priest tortured for five months accused Francis of turning his
back on him, describing his election as “a black day”.
Francis vehemently denies the accusations. The Jesuit son of a railway worker,
he was particularly popular among Argentina’s poor for his frills-free
lifestyle.
He cooked for himself and opted for public transport over a chauffeured car. A
snap even emerged yesterday of him in Buenos Aires’ cramped underground
network.
Others showed him as a young clergyman and as a season ticket holder at local
side San Lorenzo.
n.parker@the-sun.co.uk
He starts with a joke
From NICK PARKER in Rome
THE childhood sweetheart of Pope Francis told last night how he had said to
her — “If I can’t marry you I will become a priest”.
Amalia Damonte, 76, said her dad beat her after she received a love letter
from Jorge Mario Bergoglio when they were both 12.
She was among former neighbours of the Pope from the run-of-the-mill Buenos
Aires neighbourhood where he grew up. But her parents stamped out any
blossoming romance.
Amalia said: “I said to him ‘Look Jorge, stay away because if my father shows
up he will kill us’. My parents kept me away from him. They did everything
they could to separate us.”
She never saw him again.
The pontiff’s last remaining sibling Maria Elena Bergoglio, 64, also told how
her brother confessed he never wanted to become Pope.
She said: “He didn’t want to be Pope and when we chatted privately about it we
joked at the prospect and he would say, ‘No, please no’.”
Meanwhile Pope Francis — dubbed a lookalike of TV’s Bullseye host Jim Bowen —
signalled his intention to become a “Pope of the People” within hours of his
election — by cracking a joke over dinner. Church officials revealed
there was laughter as he raised a toast to the men who had chosen him and
quipped: “May God forgive you for what you have done!”
He even paid his hotel bill in person before taking part in his inaugural
afternoon Mass in the Sistine Chapel.
