Let them try. The Catholic bashers are irrational anyway.
Trying to make any alleged ties to the Argentine junta as a bad thing is absurd, I mean how many people here still defend Pinochet who more or less did the same as Videla et al?
Odds are they’ll more likely see “Social Justice” and accuse him of Crypto-Communism.
>>Odds are they’ll more likely see “Social Justice” and accuse him of Crypto-Communism.<<
Sadly, that has already been suggested (and wrongly so): Check many comments on the live HABEMUS PAPAS thread: http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-religion/2996496/posts
“Care for the poor” (as Christ asked us all to do personally) somehow was interpreted by the deluded as Marxism.
My take is that Pope Francis I will ask people across the world to look into THEIR INDIVIDUAL HEARTS to help the poor (as many Conservatives do now).
Sal and NYer can describe things better than I...
Oh and yes, I do look to and help the poor. Through CCF and other groups that HELP THEM STEP OUT OF BEING POOR! That is the highest good any of us can do (IMHO).
Videla’s regime caused double the amount of deaths when compared to Pinochet. The majority of Pinochet’s victims were trained in Cuba to install communism in Chile. Videla’s regime was less discriminate when it came to their war against Soviet agents.
To compare Pinochet to Videla is inaccurate. Pinochet never harbored Nazi war criminals as Videla did. He brought prosperity to Chile, whereas Videla brought total stagnation. He set up the relatively functional democratic process Chile has today, and voluntarily stepped down to give Chileans democracy. Videla had no such intentions, nor did his successors, who were willing to go into a bloody war to preserve their power.
I don’t deny many of the ‘right wing’ Latin American dictatorships we propped up were corrupt and murderous (Noriega), but I think it’s unfair to put Pinochet, who saved his country from a Cuba-esque fate (100,000 dead) at the hands of Salvador Allende, in with the others. He was unique. In fact, when he handed over power to the people, he was almost elected president (44%), not exactly what you’d expect for a bloodthirsty tyrant, which is what the left paints him as. Similarly to Mubarak, Pinochet was not nearly as bad as the left make out.