“Rather than risk his ability”

The dictators of the time were especially concerned about
communists–the military junta in Argentina maybe even more so than
other countries like Chile. They were disappearing all sorts of
people who expressed any leftist sympathy in public whatsoever.

Meanwhile, Liberation Theology, which was essentially a
re-branded Marxism with a Christian twist, was gaining within the
leadership of the Catholic church throughout Latin America.

In other countries, various dictators really did become violent
enemies of various church leaders…and the dictators made targets
of the church leaders.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Óscar_Romero
#Assassination

If he had let the Jesuits in Argentina become the explicit
enemies of the junta, then the junta almost certainly would have
come after them–I don’t think I’m going out on a limb there.

It looks like he made a decision not to become part of the
carnage, and if his subordinates refused to stop antagonizing the
junta–after he told them they were doing so without his
protection–then they knew what they were doing.

I don’t think I blame him for what happened to those priests in
that situation (without more facts). I think I blame the junta.