Pope Directs Catholic Church in Argentina to Release 'Dirty War' Records | Sojourners

Pope Directs Catholic Church in Argentina to Release 'Dirty War' Records

Political mural in Buenos Aires commemorating the Dirty War. Image via Carsten ten Brink/Flickr

The Vatican and the Catholic Church in Argentina released a joint statement on Oct. 25 pledging to release archives from Argentina’s “Dirty War,” reports the Associated Press. Though no date has been set for the release, the statement says officials have completed the process of cataloguing and digitalizing the records and that they will soon be available — though only for victims, relatives, and church superiors of victims, such as nuns or priests.

The Dirty War — a period of Argentinian military dictatorship and violent state crackdown against leftist dissidents — lasted from 1976 to 1983. Official estimates suggest that roughly 13,000 people were either killed or “disappeared” — called “desaparecidos” — during the period, while some activists claim the number could be closer to 30,000.

Many have accused the Catholic Church of being complicit in the government-sanctioned violence, and the Argentinian Pope Francis has been criticized for being silent in the face of such atrocity. But today’s statement says the decision to release the archives came at the pope’s direction.

The move is noteworthy, given that many of the records would traditionally never be made public, while others would not typically be released for decades. The break with tradition, according to the statement, comes “in the service of truth, justice and peace.”

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