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Vatican rejects claims that Bergoglio collaborated with junta

• One of the two priests kidnapped when then-Fr Bergoglio was Jesuit provincial also says claims are false

The Vatican has publicly rejected accusations that Pope Francis collaborated with the military dictatorship headed by General Galtieri that ruled Argentina before he became a bishop.

In a prepared statement, the spokesman for the Vatican press office, Fr Federico Lombardi said today that the claims against the Pope, which date from the time that he was Provincial of the Jesuit order in Argentina in 1970s, were entirely false and defamatory.

Fr Lombardi said they referred to an episode recounted in a publication which he said was known to have an anti-clerical agenda. According to Fr Lombardi, the book claimed that the then-Fr Jorge Bergolio did nothing to protect two Jesuits who were kidnapped, interrogated and tortured by the military.

Fr Lombardi said there was no concrete evidence to support this claim. He said that Fr Bergoglio was interrogated once by the military but nothing was ever imputed against him. On the contrary, Fr Lombardi insisted that the future Pope did all he could to protect those who were being persecuted by the dictatorship. He said the accusations were part of a campaign against the Pope by left-wing elements that were determined to attack him.

According to one of the two Jesuits who was kidnapped, who was interviewed in Germany this week, the claims that the future Pope did nothing to help them was false. He said that together with the other Jesuit they had concelebrated Mass together as a public demonstration of their solidarity.

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