During Argentina’s 1976-1983 military dictatorship, around 13,000 people forcibly "disappeared."

Surviving family members of the missing people are now hoping Pope Francis, who hails from Buenos Aires, will order the opening up of files from that bloody time.

As reported by The Associated Press, Graciela Palacio de Lois, a member of the group Families of the Disappeared and Held for Political Reasons, stated on Thursday that the pontiff showed signs of wanting to release the files during a meeting with her group.

Those who have had members disappear during the time period know as the "Dirty War," filed complaints to the Argentina papal nuncio and episcopate.

Included within the files is Palacio de Lois' own letter denouncing the 1976 disappearance of her husband. Speaking about what the Catholic church could do to help heal Argentina’s past, Lois said the Vatican should send the group a response saying it received the complaints.

Lois said, however, that Angela "Lita" Boitano did get word on what was happening. She directly spoke to the pope about the files, and he replied that it was on their radar.

Lois is hopeful that with the release of the files, Pope Francis will also deliver some words of criticism for the past actions of the Argentine church and the seemingly complacent role it played during the time of dictatorship.

An admission of some culpability might go a long way in bringing Argentines back to the church as, despite the fact that a 2010 Pew poll had the percentage of Catholics in Argentina listed at 76.8 percent, according to a Foreign Policy article, a mere 33 percent of the Catholics interviewed said that religion was important in their lives.

According to Lois, who asserts that her information regarding the pope was later confirmed by Vatican secretariat of state Monsignor Giuseppe Laterza, "The pope also said they're working on that and they're preparing a document."

Although the official number of people that were killed or disappeared in the government-sponsored crackdown on leftist dissidents is thought to be 13,000, human rights activists say that the real number was closer to 30,000.