Since he became Pope Francis last week, questions have swirled about Jorge Bergoglio’s relationship with Argentina’s junta during the country’s "Dirty War," a period of military rule between 1976 and 1983. During this time, the government forcibly “disappeared” upwards of 9,000 people. Journalist Horacio Verbitsky has accused Pope Francis, then father Jorge Bergolgio, of spreading rumors that two liberation theology priests within his Jesuit order, Orlando Yorio and Francisco Jalics, were leftists, effectively signaling to the military that the priests did not have Church protection. Bergoglio has denied these allegations, saying that he in fact tried to protect the priests: Firstly, by encouraging them stop their work in the slums, which was putting them in danger; secondly, by housing them after the coup to provide protection; and thirdly, by using back channels to try to save them after their kidnappings.

In 2010, Bergoglio was called as a witness in a criminal investigation of eighteen officers at the Naval Mechanics School, the secret prison where Yorio and Jalics were held. He faced questioning from several human rights lawyers and three judges. His four-and-a-half hour testimony covered subjects such as his long relationship to the priests, the steps he claims to have taken to protect the priests, and the meetings he had with high government officials to secure their release. The hearing also briefly covered Pope Francis's relationship with Esther Ballestrino de Careaga, one of the founding members of the Mothers of the Plaza de Mayo, a group of women who protested the disappearance of their children at the height of the dictatorship. Here, we present four important clips (in Spanish) from his testimony.

In this clip, Bergoglio describes the steps he took to secure the release of his friend Esther Ballestrino de Careaga, a human rights activists and founder of the Mothers of the Plaza de Mayo who was disappeared in December 1977 along with eleven other human rights activists. Her remains were identified in 2005 after they had long been buried in a pauper's grave in 1977 when her body washed up on shore; the bones showed signs consistent with a forceful impact from a fall, such as being thrown out of an airplane. In the exchange, Bergoglio begins by explaining the "great friendship" he had with Ballestrino de Careaga dating back to the 1950s. Attorney Luis Zamora asks Bergoglio what he did when he discovered that Ballestrino de Careaga had disappeared. Bergoglio says it "hurt me a lot," and that he tried to get in touch with the family, who were "sort of hidden" because Ballestrino de Careaga's daughter Ana Maria had already been secretly kidnapped . He testifies that he also tried to contact others who might have information on Ballestrino de Careaga's whereabouts. Asked if he contacted the authorities, Bergoglio says that he did not, because judicial relations were handled by the Archbishopric, where he did not work. (At the time, he was head of the Jesuit order in Argentina, a position outside of the institutional Church hierarchy.) Zamora closes the encounter by asking if, given their friendship, Bergoglio should have done more for Ballestrino de Careaga. Bergoglio responds, "I did what I could."

Bergoglio’s critics allege that he was on an ideological campaign to expunge left-wing priests like Yorio and Jalics from the Church. Bergoglio explains that "every priest that worked with the poor was a target for suspicion and accusation from some sectors," and says he rejected the rumors circulating within the Jesuit order before and after the coup about ‘zurdos ,’ a derogatory term for a leftist. He adds that he travelled to La Rioja in 1973 to "intervene in the case of two Jesuits that worked there with the poor" and were also "objects of these nasty remarks." Pressed by Zamora for information on the source of the rumors, Bergoglio states that it came from segments of the order "opposed to this type of pastoral work."

"Do they have a name and last name?" Zamora asks.