Pope Francis will visit a new but hauntingly familiar land

HE will find shades of Evita and the real Imelda, grieving kin of desaparecidos and uncaring technocrats, etc.

Argentina, Pope Francis’ land of birth and the base of his priestly duties until his ascent to the papacy, had historical chapters very similar to us. (I mentioned “land of birth” because his parents were Italian immigrants.) In 1976, for example, an army general, Jorge Rafael Videla staged a coup and ruled as a dictator until 1981.