Document Involving Bishop’s Crimes Implicates Francis

More on the Zanchetta scandal that makes McCarrick look like small potatoes.

From The Eponymous Flower

The document proving that the Vatican had been aware of the sexual wrongdoing of Bishop Zanchetta for years - long before Francis promoted him to the high post in the Vatican.

(Rome) It is not just the case involving former Cardinal McCarrick that has been putting Pope Francis in distress for months. This also applies to the case of the Argentine bishop Gustavo Oscar Zanchetta. Francis is silent and seems to be hoping that the storm may soon abate. He does not give a good example.

So far, the bill has been upheld because the leading mass media are still sparing Francis. Since the fall of January 2018, the fall of the Chilean Bishop Juan Barros Madrid exploded, the image of Francis nevertheless took some damage. Since then, the responsible head of the Church has not been liable for the scandal of sexual abuse by bishops who are close to him. The Barros case was followed by further cases in Chile, in Honduras, then the McCarrick case and the Pennsylvania report in the United States of America.

Through the dossier of the former Apostolic Nuncio in the USA, Carlo Maria Viganò, Francis fell directly into the line of fire. In late August 2018, the archbishop publicly accused him of being informed of McCarrick's sexual misconduct since June 2013, but he nevertheless rehabilitated McCarrick and allowed him influence on bishop appointments in the US and the Vatican China policy.

Last December, another case was added, that of the Argentine bishop Gustavo Oscar Zanchetta. The Argentine newspaper El Tribuno and the international press agency AP are publishing a joint report that the Vatican was already aware of the Bishop's sexual transgressions in 2015 and 2017, but did nothing. On the contrary: Zanchetta, who disappeared overnight from his diocese in the summer of 2017, suddenly reappeared in the Vatican half a year later. Two days after Zanchetta's descent, Pope Francis resigned without giving an explanation to the irritated believers in the diocese of Oran. Moreover, after Zanchetta reappeared in the Vatican, Francis promoted him to a high position in the Apostolic Property Administration (APSA). He still sits there today.

The background of his escape from Argentina was unclear. The reason given was the shattered finances he left behind in his diocese. With this justification, Francis already deposed far less traditional bishops. The "Franciscan friend" Zanchetta (El Tribuno), on the other hand, was promoted and of all people to an office dealing with goods management.

It became known through the El Tribuno and AP reports that the real reason for Zanchetta's disappearance was a gay double life, and the bishop sexually corrupted seminarians of his own seminary.

Since the case of Barroso, Pineda (former Auxiliary Bishop of Tegucigalpa), McCarrick and Zanchetta, there is the question of how Pope Francis keeps himself from covering up sexual misconduct. While publicly denouncing the cover-up as an unacceptable evil, he still owes answers to more questions than any other high dignitary of the Church.

El Tribuno, the daily newspaper on the occasion of the Vatican Abuse Summit, published a document dated April 26, 2016, featuring five high-ranking prelates of the diocese of Oran, including the Vicars General, Chancellor and Rector of the Seminary, and other Monsignori, who informed Pope Francis  about the unacceptable misconduct of their bishop. The five-page document provides detailed information and bears their signatures.

The last page of the document containing five signatures.

Only so much is said: Bishop Zanchetta gave the chancellor on June 21, 2015, the order to publish photos of some events on his mobile phone on the Facebook page of the diocese. On the bishop's mobile phone, the shocked chancellor also found pornographic footage of homosexual acts by adolescents and nude selfies by Bishop Zanchetta, which he had shared with third parties through WhatsApp.

The pictures were saved and the Vicar General informed. Finally, in April of the following year, the five prelates and the chancellor sat down and set out the document they sent to the apostolic nuncio in Argentina, Msgr. Emil Paul Tscherrig.

The subject of the letter was also the authoritative treatment of the bishop with his priests and the financial mismanagement he caused.

Bishop Gustavo Oscar Zanchetta was named Bishop of Oran in 2013 by Pope Francis, although he had previously left a mess in administration and finance as Vicar General in the Diocese of Quilmes.

What credibility can Pope Francis claim for the abuse scandal, as long as he does not answer the questions about his role in those cases?

His refusal to address homosexuality, the main reason for the abuse of minors, raises further questions. Does Francis only want to condemn what is being prosecuted by the secular states, but not what is punishable under Church law? Will he continue to protect homosexuality in the Church?

Text: Giuseppe Nardi

Image: El Tribuno (Screenshots)

Trans: Tancred vekron99@hotmail.com

AMDG