His Holiness Pope Francis is scheduled to be installed as the 266th pontiff on
Tuesday, March 19, 2013. At this time, the Church has quite a bit on the
agenda. Examples of things to get done include evangelization, reform of
governance within the Church, interfaith issues, the role of women in the
Church, the growing use of surrogates, clergy misconduct issues and
transforming the reporting mechanisms between the Synod of Bishops and
the papacy.
Perhaps the most important thing to be done at the outset is to transform
the reporting relationship between the Synod of Bishops and the pope.
This was an effort begun by His Holiness Pope Paul VI.
The Synod consists of a group of bishops who have been chosen from
different areas of the globe. Their mission is to create a closer unity between the Pontiff
and the bishops in order to strengthen ecclesiastical discipline and to consider questions
pertaining to the activity of the Church across the globe.
The Synod has many responsibilities. Reporting on specific geopolitical
issues to the pope is the area which has caused the most questions surrounding
the Church's actions or lack thereof in the "Dirty War" in Argentina. This war
was the subject of growing questions about then Father Bergoglio's advising
several Argentine priests to give up their pastoral work for a period or lose
the protection of the Jesuit Order in Argentina.
The Church was not the only party to have been faced with difficult choices in the "Dirty War".
On October 6, 1976, Argentinian Admiral Cesar Augusto Guzzetti had been
told by Acting Secretary of State Charles W. Robinson "The problem is that the United States
is an idealistic and moral country and its citizens have great difficulty in comprehending the kinds
of problems faced by Argentina today. There is a tendency to apply our moral standards abroad
and Argentina must understand the reaction of Congress with regard to loans and military
assistance. The American people, right or wrong, have the perception that today there exists in
Argentina a pattern of gross violations of human rights."
Examples of human rights violations include the activities of "I wish Pope Francis God's rich blessings for his office."
Adolfo Perez Esquivel best summed up the situation as it existed in Argentina in his
Nobel Lecture of December 11, 1980. (excerpts)
I speak of my own Argentina where situations have led to systems of injustice that we share with the rest of our large Latin American fatherland. These have devolved into violence from both the Left and the Right which have resulted in the murdered, the injured, the disappeared, the tortured, prisoned, and exiled.
This situation, anguished and unjust, is shared by all responsible sectors of national life. It is felt with sorrow by the families of the disappeared, and especially the mothers, like the mothers of the Plaza de Mayo whose valorous and international action for peace is a patient witness bearing the sorrow of uncertainty about the fate of their sons.
The churches, the workers' organizations, the political parties and the institutions for the defense of human rights have all demanded a solution of this problem that stands in the way of a real meeting of the Argentines.
I do not wish to speak more of the above mentioned injustices, since I do not believe the latter is the struggle for you here. These are things I must deal with in my own country and confront with the present government.
This week, His Holiness Pope Francis begins the journey of a new papacy. Everyone wishes him well in this new endeavor.
Credits: First Published on Blogcritics
Ref: http://www.gwu.edu/~nsarchiv/NSAEBB/NSAEBB104/index.htm "Dirty War"
One day earlier, on October 6, 1976, Admiral Cesar Augusto Guzzetti had been told by Acting Secretary of State Charles W. Robinson "that it is possible to understand the requirement to be tough." But Robinson also remarked on the "question of timing of the relaxation of extreme countersubversion measures" before Congress voted sanctions on Argentina. The memcon with Robinson goes on to note that "[t]he Acting Secretary said… The problem is that the United States is an idealistic and moral country and its citizens have great difficulty in comprehending the kinds of problems faced by Argentina today. There is a tendency to apply our moral standards abroad and Argentina must understand the reaction of Congress with regard to loans and military assistance. The American people, right or wrong, have the perception that today there exists in Argentina a pattern of gross violations of human rights."
