Two Jesuits in particular, Father Orlando Yorio and Father Francisco Jalics, who worked among the poor in the favela, or slum, of Buenos Aires persisted in politically charged teachings. Their preaching came to the attention of the junta after the military arrested a man that worked with the priests before joining the guerillas. The two Jesuits disappeared in 1976 and were held captive by the military at the Navy Mechanics School, a site infamous for the torture and killing during the junta.
At the time, the Church in Argentina was often silent about the atrocities of the Dirty War. The bishops later issued apologies for the omissions made by clergy. In the 2000’s, victims' advocacy groups accused Cardinal Bergoglio of also being silent about the kidnapping and even, perhaps, abetting the junta with the task. These accusations resurfaced in the media once again when Bergoglio ascended to the papacy.
In 2013, reporter Nello Scavo published a book in Italy, “La Lista di Bergoglio” (Bergoglio’s List). He used interviews with former Argentine fugitives, various interviews with Bergoglio, and court documents to reveal what actually took place during the Dirty War. Sandro Magister, a Vatican expert, writes in a review of the book, “What the young provincial of the Argentine Jesuits at the time did during those years long remained a mystery. So dense as to prompt the suspicion that he had passively witnessed the horror, or worse, had exposed to greater danger some of his confrères, those most committed among the resistance.” In November 2010, lawyers representing victims of the Dirty War extensively examined Cardinal Bergoglio in a court proceeding and questioned why he met with Jorge Videla and Emilio Massera, leaders of the juanta. Perhaps, they insinuated, he was a co-conspirator with the dictators. After all, during their time in captivity, Father Yorio and Father Jalics were told by their captors that Father Bergoglio was the one that betrayed them, and Father Bergoglio did not publicly call out for their release.
Father Bergoglio recognized that a public call for the release of the priests would be a very dangerous act for both him and his order. Instead, he arranged secretly to plead for their release. In a letter to Father Jalics’ brother, Father Bergoglio wrote, “I have lobbied the government many times for your brother’s release. So far we have had no success. But I have not lost hope that your brother will soon be released. I have made this affair MY thing. The difficulties that your brother and I have had over the religious life have nothing to do with it” (as quoted in Ch. 7 of Pope Francis by Matthew Bunson).
Risking his own life, Father Bergoglio was determined to speak face to face with Jorge Videla, the general at the helms of the junta government, and Admiral Massera. His interest with Massera, a naval admiral high in the juanta, was to get to Videla in order to plead for the release of the priests. Not successful in his first meeting with Videla, Father Bergoglio committed to try again. Father Bergoglio found the priest who routinely held Mass for Videla at his home and convinced him to call in sick one day so he could trade places with the priest. He went to the general’s home to say Mass and then approached Videla. Videla confirmed that, as Father Bergoglio had suspected, Father Yorio and Father Jalics were indeed being held at the Naval Mechanics School. He then approached Massera. In 2010, Bergoglio shared with the court his conversation with the admiral: “‘Look, Massera, I want them back alive.’ I got up and left.” The next day, the two priests were released, after five months into their ordeal, drugged, and dropped from a helicopter into a marsh.
The priests later realized that Father Bergoglio had not betrayed them to the juanta and were reconciled to him. Father Jalics now lives in Germany and has supported Bergoglio’s papacy. Father Lombardi at the Vatican countered the attacks on Bergoglio for these events: “The accusations pertain to a use of historical-sociological analysis of the dictatorship period made years ago by left-wing anticlerical elements to attack the Church. They must be firmly rejected” (as quoted in Ch. 7 of Pope Francis by Matthew Bunson). But this was not all. Father Bergoglio in fact had much to hide from the juanta.
Bergoglio admitted in interviews that he helped to hide wanted persons from the juanta during the Dirty War and even provided his own identification to a wanted man who resembled him. The book, “Bergoglio’s List”, reveals that Father Bergoglio was actually the mastermind of a secret network carefully orchestrated to hide and transport targeted persons. The network worked from a Jesuit institution that was located only a few blocks away from the president’s palace. Fugitives were enrolled at the Colegio Máximo seminary in San Miguel as students or retreatants. Neither the fugitives nor Bergoglio’s collaborators knew who among them was a fugitive and who was an actual student. They were only told enough information to accomplish their particular mission. According to Magister, “Bergoglio was the only one who held all the strings.” Fugitives were often transported to Brazil secretly by land or to Uruguay by cargo boat and passed for hired help. According to Father Juan Scannone, a Jesuit who worked with Father Bergoglio, “If one of us had known and had been abducted and subjected to torture, the whole network of protection would have fallen apart. Father Bergoglio was aware of this risk, and for this reason he kept everything secret. A secret that he maintained even afterward, because he never wanted to boast about that exceptional mission of his.”
In addition to saving at least dozens of lives, this time prepared Father Bergoglio for his future leadership in the Church. Father Bergoglio believed that many of his homeland’s problems could be boiled down to a lack of solidarity and a lack of concern for one’s fellow countrymen that are different either politically or socioeconomically. There were many factions in the country that divide the rich and the poor, and throughout the years many sad and emotionally charged events that have widened that chasm. Even though the country is rich in natural resources, many of the resources have not been developed, which make the cities the main venue for possible employment. The poor lack education and have fallen into a pattern of dependency; many have not had the opportunity to develop a real work ethic. Furthermore, the poverty rate in Argentina has multiplied exponentially over the past decades. Father Bergoglio speaks of the poor, “It is everyone’s responsibility: it is mine, just as it is the bishops’, all Christians’, and those who spend money without a clear social conscience” (see Ch. 10 of Conversations with Jorge Bergoglio for his reflections on the problems within Argentina). Soon enough, Father Bergoglio would have an opportunity on a national scale to do what he could to promote a ‘culture of cooperation.’