Fury of the Falklands heroes over new Pope: He believes 'the Malvinas' belong to Argentina, and its president hopes he will support her case

• Pope Francis calls Falkland Islands 'Argentine soil'
  
• General Sir Hew Pike said new pontiff does not observe islander's rights
• Argentina's president Kirchner hopes Francis will help her claim to islands

By Neil Sears for the Daily Mail and Hannah Roberts

Published: 19:31 EDT, 14 March 2013 | Updated: 04:36 EDT, 15 March 2013

Veteran: Lt General Sir Hew Pike, who led 3 Para in the 1982 conflict, is 'saddened' that the pontiff believes the Falklands belong to Argentina

Falklands veterans told of their dismay last night after the Argentine president hinted she hoped the new Pope – her countryman – would mediate in the dispute surrounding the territory.

Pope Francis believes the South Atlantic islands are ‘Argentine soil’.

In 2010 the then Buenos Aires Cardinal declared: ‘The Malvinas are ours’, and last year he accused Britain of ‘usurping’ the islands.

Firebrand Argentine president Cristina Kirchner, who has for months been seeking easy home popularity by calling for Britain to enter talks on withdrawing from the Falklands, has leapt on the promotion of her fellow Argentine to the papacy to boost her case.

In a televised address yesterday she pointedly said she hoped the new Pope would ‘take a message to the major world powers that they need to participate in dialogue’.

The controversy was stoked up only days after the islanders voted almost unanimously to retain their ties to London.

Last night retired Lieutenant General Sir Hew Pike, who commanded 3 Para in the 1982 conflict, said the newly elected leader of the Catholic Church seemed not to recognise the Falkland islanders’ right to self-determination.

Sir Hew, 69, said the Pope’s statements about the Falklands gave no recognition of the islanders’ wish to remain British.

Sir Hew said: ‘It saddens me that a man of the Pope’s stature does not seem to respect the rights of a group of people to self-determination.

‘We went to war on the basis of that principle of self-determination, for that small community of people in the Falklands, and that’s the point.

One would have thought a priest should respect that.

Newly-elected Pope Francis, Cardinal Jorge Mario Bergoglio of Argentina, claims 'Las Malvinas' belong to Argentina and called Britain 'usurpers'

Pope Francis celebrates his inaugural Mass with cardinals inside the Sistine Chapel, at the Vatican yesterday. Last year he said: 'We must not forget those who shed their blood on Argentinian soil'

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Argentina's President Kirchner hopes the appointment of Francis will boost her plans to take the islands

‘Communities large or small are equally important in this world, but it seems that people like him don’t recognise that. I profoundly disagree with the Pope’s stance.

‘I think when Popes get involved in politics that’s probably not very helpful.’

Major General Malcolm Hunt, who commanded 40 Commando Royal Marines, suggested the Argentine pontiff should take a more diplomatic stance after his elevation.

Referring to his stated belief that the islands belong to Argentina, General Hunt said: ‘It is not ideal, it doesn’t help, and it certainly suits Madame Kirchner to have these things said by such a person.

‘He’ll no doubt say something more diplomatic now he’s Pope.

‘But certainly I would have thought that a man of faith would have been in favour of everybody, wherever they are, having some say about their own life and future.’

Pope Francis has been urged by British veterans of the Falklands war to take a more diplomatic stance

President Kirchner’s relationship with the former Archbishop of Buenos Aires has until now been thorny, the two having engaged in open battle over gay marriage.

When the conservative Cardinal Bergoglio called for ‘God’s War’ on her government’s gay marriage proposals, Kirchner accused him of putting forward ideas ‘from the Dark Ages and the Inquisition’.

He replied that women were ‘too inept’ to hold political positions. But given her one-time enemy’s new influence, not to mention supposed infallibility, all that seems to be water under the bridge.

pope girlfriend graphic.jpg

The Argentine leader has already cleared her diary to fly to Rome for the Pope’s inaugural Mass on Tuesday.

Falklands tensions started to rise again when oil and gas prospectors raised hopes of massive reserves around the islands in 2010.

Since then President Kirchner’s government has imposed an increasing economic blockade on the islands, limiting charter flights from the mainland to one a week, and trying to prevent cruise liners from visiting.

She has dismissed this week’s 99.8 per cent vote in favour of retaining British sovereignty, comparing the islanders to squatters.

The new Pope’s first act was a visit to the tomb of a predecessor who was a model of morality. Pope Francis travelled three miles to the Basilica Santa Maria Maggiore, where 16th century Pope Pius V  is buried.

His visit appeared to symbolise his hopes for his Papacy. St Pius is remembered by Catholics for his hatred of corruption and his attempts to bring discipline and morality to the church.

He is also known for his enthusiasm as the church’s chief inquisitor, credited with driving Protestantism out of Italy.

Pius V was also the Pope who excommunicated Queen Elizabeth I on the grounds that she was a usurper – the word the modern Cardinal Bergoglio has used to describe the British role in the Falkland Islands.

Today Pope Francis will prepare for his unprecedented conference with the world’s media tomorrow.

Pope Francis laying a wreath yesterday. The natives of the Falkland Isleands voted overwhelmingly to remain British earlier this week

 

He was complicit, say families of 'disappeared' by Argentina's dictatorship

Killed: Elena de la Cuadra was pregnant when kidnapped by Argentine police in 1977

Pope Francis was accused yesterday of being ‘complicit in a genocidal government’ by victims of Argentina’s dictatorship.

As Jorge Bergoglio, he was head of the Jesuits in Argentina in the 1970s when the Church backed the country’s brutal military junta.

Tens of thousands were kidnapped or killed during the ‘dirty war’ on supposed dissidents. They were known as ‘the disappeared’.

The new Pope has been linked to the ‘stolen babies’ scandal in which around 500 infants were seized by the state. Estela de la Cuadra, whose niece Ana was among those taken, told Brazilian newspaper O Globo: ‘The Catholic Church has chosen a person who for us, families of the victims of repression exercised by the military, was complicit in a genocidal government.’

Four members of the de la Cuadra family disappeared during the dictatorship.

One, Elena, gave birth to Ana in prison before she was killed and the baby was seized. Her family claim they contacted Bergoglio asking for his help getting Ana back.

He is alleged to have assigned Monsignor Mario Picchi to investigate the case. But Picchi was told by a colonel it was ‘impossible’ to return the child as she had been given to ‘too important a family’.

Pope Francis has claimed he had no knowledge of stolen babies until after the end of the dictatorship in 1983.

He has also been accused of failing to prevent the five-month ordeal of two of his own priests in 1976.

Orlando Yorio and Francisco Jalics were kidnapped after being branded dissidents for their work with the poor in Buenos Aires.

They were tortured at a military prison in Buenos Aires before being drugged, blindfolded and dumped in a field.

Picture taken in 1973 of the then priest Jorge Mario Bergoglio, who was elected Pope yesterday

Angela Lerena, an Argentine journalist and relative of Father Orlando, described the election of Pope Francis as ‘a black day’ for her family.

Investigative journalist Horacio Verbitsky has published a book called ‘The Silence’ accusing Bergoglio of being complicit in the kidnappings.

It claims he withdrew support for the two priests’ work, effectively handing them over to the death squads.

The new Pope claims he instructed the two priests to give up their work in the slums for their own safety, and that he worked behind the scenes for their release. He recently told a newspaper: ‘I did what I could with the age and little influence I had.’