Pope Francis and the past

Students, trade unionists, journalists were targeted. Their drugged bodies dumped from military planes above the choppy South Atlantic. The women were often raped.

"We have much to be sorry for," Father Ruben Captianio told the New York Times in 2007. "The attitude of the church was scandalously close to the dictatorship to such an extent that I would say it was of a sinful degree."

The mothers of the Plaza de Mayo were rarely accompanied by members of the church during their dignfiied and brave protest against the junta.

This was not just a small war in a far-away country of which most of the world knew little. As many as 30,000 people were killed or disappeared during this period, and many children and babies were abducted from parents imprisoned in concentration camps or murdered by the regime.

Bergoglio led the Argentine Jesuits from 1973-79. He was a leading member of the church when the militray sought its approval for a coup The most famous "missing baby" is the congresswoman Victoria Donda. Her parents were killed after her mother, who had been kidnapped, gave birth in military custody in Aug 1977. "It is important to remember that this was not a civil war," Donda told me when we met in 2009. "The term implies two roughly equal sides. The 'Dirty War' was state terror. The military had a social and economic plan to impose and that's why they targeted the political opposition." But Donda said there is no chance of such a regime returning in Argentina. "People are more aware of their rights today than before. But we must teach our children about what happened. It is important not to forget."

At the very least, Bergoglio did not bear witness to the suffering of his people. He has a powerful pulpit from which to make amends. But all indications are that he will opt to forget just what occurred in his country in those seven years.