Talking about similarities, there are clearly many between those who take on leadership positions in the church as in Islam.

It seems the more your hands are soaked in blood, the more likely you are to get a leading position.

It’s definitely like that in the Islamic regime of Iran. As it is in the Church.

By now, you have all seen allegations against this latest pope dating back to the Argentinian dictatorship era, when the Catholic church colluded with the generals to quell the “Marxist threat”.

Here’s one report on this:

The Argentinian newspaper Pagina 12 republished old documents on Sunday that suggest Jorge Bergoglio, as the pope was known until last week, was in contact with the military authorities about the insubordination of two of his priests and rumours that they had contact with leftwing guerrilla groups.

Father Orlando Yorio and Father Francisco Jalics were tortured and kept in a concentration camp for nearly six months in 1976, after they refused Bergoglio’s order to leave the slum where they were working. In that era, any priest who focused on the poor districts was under suspicion of collaborating with Marxist groups.

A foreign ministry memo from 1979 seems to suggest Bergoglio had passed on suspicions to the authorities, and connived behind the backs of the priests.

The typed note contains bullet points that explain why Jalics was denied a passport renewal application. He had fled to Germany following his release, and asked Bergoglio’s help to get a travel document.

It says Jalics had failed to obey the orders of his religious order (the Jesuits, then headed by Bergoglio), that he was suspected of contact with guerrillas and that he and Yorio had asked to leave the order after the head of the Jesuits ordered them to disband the missions in the slum.

A potentially damning note at the end of this document says: “This information was provided to Mr Orgoyen by Father Bergoglio, who signed the note with a special recommendation not to accept his request [for a passport].” It appears to prove that Bergoglio said one thing and did the opposite when it came to the request for help with the passport application, and felt put out by indiscipline in his religious order. (The Jesuits were founded by a general and operate on military lines in the fight for the church. For them, discipline is a priority.)

Of course I wouldn’t have expected anything less…