On 1st anniversary, pope defends 'slum priests'

On his first anniversary as pontiff Thursday, Pope Francis defended "slum priests" from the accusation their advocacy for the downtrodden reflects a different, leftist church that is remote from conservative Vatican values.
"The work of the priests in the slums of Buenos Aires is not ideological, it's apostolic, and therefore forms part of the same church. Those who think that it's another church don't understand how they work in the slums. The important thing is the work," Francis insisted in an interview made public Thursday.
As Argentina's top Roman Catholic leader before he was elected pope, Jorge Mario Bergoglio assigned many priests to parishes in the crowded slums that grew up around the capital. His support made him a cherished figure among the very poor who felt marginalized, especially during the bloody 1960s and '70s, when military dictatorships ruled the South American country.
"Francis is a slum pope. It's not a cliche. He was quite involved in this slum before he was elected pope," said Eduardo Najera, who directs the community radio station FM Bajo Flores that broadcasts from the Villa 1-11-14 slum across from the San Lorenzo soccer stadium, where the pope's favorite team plays.
The station interviewed the pope two weeks earlier at his residence in the Vatican, and the dialogue was played for the first time in public Thursday on a huge screen before a crowd gathering inside the slum's gymnasium.
Francis was asked about Padre Carlos Mugica and other members of Argentina's Movement of Third World Priests, a branch of liberation theology, which the Vatican tried to stamp out for years. Mugica was labeled a communist subversive by the right, but he also spoke out against armed revolution before he was murdered in 1974.