Pope Francis’ death unleashed an expected flurry of stories about his time as a priest and later archbishop in Buenos Aires, as Argentine mourners recounted their interactions with then-Father Jorge Bergoglio. 

From ministering to the downtrodden to religious openness, the anecdotes reinforced the notion that many of his core ideas as pope were already on display decades before in the work he accomplished in his childhood neighborhood of Flores and countless informal settlements across the city.  

Alongside the more luminous aspects, however, controversial questions also resurfaced regarding what Francis’ role had been during the 1976-83 military dictatorship. Specifically, accusations that he had given out information that led to the kidnapping of two Jesuit priests, an allegation that had tainted the beginning of his papacy in 2013. 

There have been countless journalistic investigations into the matter. And despite the fact that some details have been lost, the available evidence strongly suggests that not only were the accusations unfounded, but that Francis personally demanded their release from the junta. He had also helped keep many others persecuted by Argentina’s last dictatorship out of harm’s way.

The kidnapping of two priests

Jorge Mario Bergoglio was the head of the Argentine and Uruguayan branch of the Jesuit order when the dictatorship began on March 24, 1976. 

Groups and individuals involved in social work were one of the dictatorship’s targets. Those who worked closely with the poor were seen as left-inclining, and therefore dangerous. Known for their commitment to social justice, at the time many Argentine Jesuits had decided to live among the poor in informal settlements. Among them were two priests named Orlando Yorio and Franz Jalics.

Yorio and Jalics were kidnapped by the Argentine Navy on May 23, 1976. They were taken from the makeshift house where they lived in a poor area of Flores. The two men would endure inhumane detention conditions and questioning sessions at the hands of multiple navy officers before being released, drugged and half-naked, in a field. Unlike most illegal detainees at the time, they were not tortured. 

Historian and journalist Marcelo Larraquy is the author of Código Francisco (Code Francis), a book that covers this issue as well as other salient issues of the pope’s life and politics. According to Larraquy, Yorio and Jalics had a “political and theological conflict” with their leader at the time of their kidnapping. While Bergoglio wanted them to stop with their missionary work on the grounds that it “compromised” their lives and others’, the priests refused. 

Bergoglio ultimately removed them from the order, citing pressure from the head of the Jesuits in Rome. This left them excardinated, meaning they were not under an order or bishop and therefore not protected by the Church. 

Days later, Yorio and Jalics were kidnapped.

According to journalist Aldo Duzdevich, author of Salvados por Francisco (Saved by Francis), Yorio and Jalics were kidnapped not due to their political leanings or because they had been excardinated, as some rumors suggested. Furthermore, Bergoglio was not responsible for the kidnappings, the author said. Instead, he pointed to their work alongside members of Cristianos para la Liberación, a religious group partially formed by members of armed organization Montoneros. He also said that Bergoglio displayed multiple efforts to have them released.

“One of the main reasons they survived is because of arrangements Bergoglio carried out personally,” Duzdevich told the Herald. 

Bergoglio personally confronted two of the military dictatorship’s heads, Jorge Rafael Videla and Emilio Eduardo Massera, meeting each of them twice to demand the priests be freed. According to testimony he gave the Argentine judiciary in 2010 in connection to this case, his second interview with Massera lasted only ten minutes and was “very bad.”

“I told him, ‘Look, Massera, I want them to appear.’ I got up and left,” Bergoglio said. 

A clandestine network

Francis not only helped the priests from his congregation escape the horrors of the dictatorship. According to Duzdevich, the pope set up a “clandestine network” in order to help those who required assistance in trying to escape.  

“Some were religious, but many were left-wing activists who didn’t have anything to do with Francis in ideological terms. In many cases, he put his own life at risk to help these young men escape,” he said.

Latin American Jesuits ran a network at the time aimed at protecting people under persecution. Exiles from Argentina, Chile, Brazil and Bolivia, among other countries under military dictatorships, were moved across borders and hidden in buildings belonging to the order. Bergoglio personally instructed Jesuits to hide, feed, and keep people safe without asking questions. 

Larraquy told the Herald that he believed Bergoglio wanted to help, but was not interested in becoming a “martyr.” 

“He just wanted to save lives in silence.”

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Accusations

Yorio and Jalics had a strained relationship with Bergoglio after being freed. Jalics was first sent to the United States and later to Germany. Yorio moved to Rome. According to Larraquy’s book, Bergoglio helped both get the necessary documentation to travel safely.

For years, Yorio and his family accused Bergoglio of playing a role in his kidnapping. In late 1977, he expressed these thoughts to Father R.P. Moura, a top priest within the Jesuit order. “[Bergoglio] was not doing anything to protect us, and we started questioning his honesty,” Yorio said in the document, in which he assured that Jalics and himself felt “unsafe.”

Jalics never directly accused Bergoglio by name. In his 1994 book Contemplation Excercises, he mentions that someone “spread the rumor” that the two priests were “terrorists” and was able to “make the lie seem believable on account of their authority,” but never identifies them.

Media reports accusing Bergoglio of betraying the priests first surfaced in the early aughts when he was archbishop of Buenos Aires City. The fact that high-ranking members of the Catholic Church backed and took part in the dictatorship only added fuel to the fire.

Bergoglio was called in by the judiciary in 2010 to testify in an ESMA Navy School of Mechanics trial about the kidnapping, given the priests were first locked up in that building before being moved to another location for the remainder of their confinement. 

He was questioned by a judge and an attorney for the defendants for four hours in the Buenos Aires Episcopate building, per Bergoglio’s request. He explained what he had done and denied the accusations against him. The judiciary never charged him for the priest kidnappings nor any other crime.

The aftermath

Jalics, who lived in Germany until his death in 2021, denied the accusations against the pope after the beginning of his papacy in 2013. “These are the facts: Orlando Yorio and I were not reported by Bergoglio,” he said in a statement published by the German Jesuits, adding that although he first believed this to be true, he later realized it was “unfounded.”

Jalics suggested that they may have been targeted for their relation to Mónica Quinteiro, a former nun and Montonero leader who worked with the two priests as part of Cristianos para la Liberación, but to this day her whereabouts remain unknown. “We didn’t see her for nine months, but two or three days after she was taken, we were taken too,” Jalics said. He added that he met with Bergoglio a few times and that he had “reconciled” with what had happened.

Pope Francis addressed the topic publicly for the last time during a meeting with Jesuits in 2023. “I did what I felt I had to do to defend them,” he said, highlighting the hardship of the ordeal.

“It was a very painful situation.”

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