Pope Francis meets with relatives
of Pinochet dictatorship victims
 |
| Pope Francis and Hector Marin Rossel, brother of a victim of the Pinochet dictatorship. |
In an originally unscheduled event Pope Francis on Thursday
met with relatives of victims of the 1970s Chilean dictatorship before leaving
for Peru on the second leg of his trip. The meeting took place in the Church of
the Sanctuary of Iquique.
By Linda Bordoni
Pope Francis made time on Thursday for a
significant event that saw him meeting with family members of victims
the Pinochet dictatorship in the 1970s in Chile.
The meeting took place after Mass and just before lunch with
aged priests at the “Casa de retiros of the Shrine of Nuestra Senora de
Lourdes”.
Hector Marin Rosset, whose 19-year-old brother Jorge
was kidnapped on 28 September 1973 and who died on that same day in Iquique
handed Pope Francis a letter and told him he still hopes to meet “disappeared”
companions of those terrible years.
Rosset is the President of the Association of the families
of victims of the regime and of the “disappeared prisoners” of Iquique and
Pisagua.
Vatican Press Office Director, Greg Burke, said Rosset
expressed his appreciation to the Pope for the work to promote and defend human
rights carried out by the Chilean Catholic Church.
Burke said that in the letter handed to the Pope Rosset
describes to the Association’s commitment to seek “disappeared” family members
and expresses the hope for the collaboration of armed forces and of the
Government of Chile.
And speaking to Ansa news agency he said the quest is a
humanitarian crusade that "will allow us to find the spiritual peace we so
badly need".
Augusto Pinochet overthrew the democratically elected
Socialist Government of Salvador Allende in September 1973 and his dictatorship
lasted until 1990. He died in 2006.
Không có nhận xét nào:
Đăng nhận xét