I'm not suggesting that Allende was a great man. He was a communist, who was seeking to Nationalize great swaths of Chille. Most coup's succeed because there is a perceived valid reason by a large enough segment of the population. So what happened (and understand that this is all very simplified) is that Pinochet replace a democratically elected (though it was a plurality not a majority) Communist regime with a dictatorship. You could argue that both were evil.

But from the standpoint of this particular story, it doesn't matter one bit. The Catholic Church is under no obligation to honor either one. They were both evil. Praising one evil over another, especially from the standpoint of the church, seems to be rather stupid.

Next thing you know, the Catholic Church will start honoring women who have first term abortions, because its not quite as bad as 3rd term abortions.

So as long as the people that Pinochet had killed and/or tortured weren't Catholic, then its perfectly acceptable? Better to kill and torture people then force Catholics to draw fish in the sand again and be forced underground?