Vatican denies Pope ...Jesuit priests during Argentina's 'Dirty War'

The Vatican is lashing out at what it called a defamatory and 'anti-clerical left-wing' media campaign questioning the newly-elected Pope’s actions during Argentina's murderous military dictatorship.

Vatican officials denounced news reports in Argentina and beyond resurrecting allegations that the former Jorge Mario Bergoglio failed to openly confront the junta responsible for kidnapping and killing thousands of people in a 'dirty war' to eliminate leftist opponents.

Bergoglio, like most Argentines, didn't publicly confront the dictators who ruled from 1976-83, while he was the leader of the country's Jesuits.

Now human rights activists are publicly differing on how much blame he personally deserves.

Top church leaders had endorsed the junta and some priests even worked alongside torturers inside secret prisons but no evidence has surfaced suggesting Bergoglio had anything to do with such crimes.

That said, many activists are angry that as archbishop of Buenos Aires for more than a decade, he didn't do more to support investigations into the atrocities.

The honeymoon that Pope Francis has enjoyed since his remarkable election hit a bump Friday shortly after old ghosts resurfaced the day before. 

A group of 44 former military and police officers on trial for torture, rape and murder in a concentration camp in Cordoba province in the 1970s wore the yellow-and-white ribbons of the papal flag in Francis' honor.

The Vatican spokesman Reverend Federico Lombardi noted that Argentine courts had never accused Bergoglio of any crime, that he had denied all accusations against him and that on the contrary 'there have been many declarations demonstrating how much Bergoglio did to protect many persons at the time.'

Dissent: Posters in his native Buenos Aires have appeared denouncing the newly-elected Pope Francis

He said the accusations against the new pope were made long ago 'by anti-clerical left-wing elements to attack the church. They must be firmly rejected.'

The harsh denunciation was typical of a Vatican that often reacts defensively when it feels under attack, even though its response served to give the story legs for another day.

Former prisoner: Bergoglio said he had told the priests- Orlando Yorio and Francisco Jalics (pictured)- to give up their slum work for their own safety, and they refused and they were imprisoned for five years

It interrupted the generally positive reception Francis has enjoyed since his election as pope on Wednesday, when even his choice of footwear - his old black shoes rather than the typical papal red - was noted as a sign of his simplicity and humility.

There was one clearly unscripted moment Friday, when the 76-year-old Francis stumbled briefly during an audience with the cardinals, but he quickly recovered. 

And for the second day in a row, Francis slipped out of the Vatican walls, this time to visit an ailing Argentine cardinal, Jorge Mejia, who suffered a heart attack Wednesday and was in the hospital.

This upbeat narrative of a people's pope who named himself after the nature-loving St. Francis of Assisi has clashed with accusations stemming from Bergoglio's past.

The worst allegation is that as the military junta took over in 1976, he withdrew support for two Jesuit priests whose work in the slums of Buenos Aires had put them in direct contact with the leftist guerrilla movement advocating armed revolution.

The priests were then kidnapped and interrogated inside a clandestine torture center at the Navy Mechanics School.

Pope of the people: Aside from the murky accusations about the 'Dirty War' Pope Francis has been praised for his humble acts- like the decision to ride along with the Cardinals rather than take his own car

Bergoglio said he had told the priests - Orlando Yorio and Francisco Jalics - to give up their slum work for their own safety, and they refused. Yorio later accused Bergoglio of effectively delivering them to the death squads by declining to publicly endorse their work. Yorio died of natural causes in Uruguay in 2000.

Jalics, who had maintained silence about the events, issued a statement Friday saying he spoke with Bergoglio years later and the two celebrated Mass together and hugged 'solemnly.'

'I am reconciled to the events and consider the matter to be closed,' he said.

Bergoglio told his official biographer, Sergio Rubin, in 2010, that he had gone to extraordinary, behind-the-scenes lengths to save the men.

Support of the Church: Vatican officials have adamantly denied any wrongdoing on his part during the conflict, which went on from the mid 1970s to early 1980s

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