Francis The Fake Reformer

By ROD DREHER
https://www.theamericanconservative.com/dreher/francis-fake-reformer-zanchetta/
February 22, 2019



Pope Francis greets Bishop Gustavo Zanchetta. (El Tribuno)

While the new Frederic Martel book, and this weekend’s big Vatican conference on sex abuse, tries to paint Pope Francis as a reformer trying to make the Church less of a gay whorehouse, this new report from an Argentine newspaper tells a different story.

The report is in Spanish, but OnePeterFive has an English-language version of the tale. It’s about how Francis and senior hierarchs protected a bishop credibly accused of molesting seminarians, and other disgusting things. Not only did Francis appoint this bishop in the first place, he also protected him, and took his corrupt self out of Argentina and put him in charge of a Vatican office concerned with financial accountability. Background here. Excerpt:

An Argentine newspaper, El Tribuno, the first one to have reported on the Zanchetta case, published documents on Thursday [February 21] that demonstrate how bishops, the cardinal primate of Argentina, the nuncio, the Vatican, and the pope himself personally knew since 2015 about the case of a bishop who now faces a serious criminal charge of sexual abuse. In the last few days, the case has arrived in civil court, with a criminal accusation made by the victims of the former bishop of Oran. Based on photographs from a 2016 report, signed by five priests, three of whom are former diocesan vicars, it appears clear that Gustavo Zanchetta was accused not only of having obscene pictures of homosexual sex on his cell phone, but also of molesting seminarians, of not having registered the sale of an important piece of property in the diocese, and of immoral behavior related to both the finances and the people of the Diocese of Oran.

The report, which El Tribuno acquired and published photos of (read here), shows how the diocese by chance discovered photos of Zanchetta and other nude men in explicit poses. The chancellor of the diocese saw these photos while he was downloading some institutional images to his P.C. from Zanchetta’s cell phone, at Zanchetta’s personal request. The chancellor informed the authorities, beginning with the vicar general. Immediately afterward, they informed Bishop Emeritus Marcelo Colombo; Archbishop Mario Cargnello of Salta; the cardinal primate, Mario Poli, Archbishop of Buenos Aires; the papal nuncio, Paul Emile Tscherrig; and the pope.

In October 2015, Gustavo Zanchetta was called urgently to Rome, and everyone in the Diocese of Oran thought it had to do with something linked to the Synod on the Family in view of the close rapport which has linked him to Jorge Mario Bergoglio ever since he was cardinal and president of the Argentine Bishops’ Conference. Zanchetta returned to Oran without anything happening, and nobody knows what he spoke about with the pope, but there are those who affirm that Bishop Zanchetta maintained that the photos were rigged.

Read the whole 1P5 account, or even better, go to the Spanish original.

According to El Tribuno, the Pope moved the disgraced and abusive Zanchetta to a Vatican slot because he wanted to show him mercy. Remember, as a Vatican diplomat, Monsignor Battista Ricca was caught in an elevator with a rent boy, was beaten up in a gay bar, and had a string of gay affairs while serving in Latin America. Francis rehabilitated him, and put him in charge of dealing with the Vatican Bank. When Francis was asked about his having given Ricca a key Vatican position despite his disgraceful behavior, the Pope said, “Who am I to judge?”

If you think Pope Francis can be trusted as a reformer, ask the priests and seminarians who reported this McCarricky cretin to their superiors, who then reported it to the Pope — who showered this abuser with “mercy.” What a fraudulent pageant going on in Rome right now, in the name of reform!

Catholic friends, I really feel for you now, and will pray for you, I promise. Steady on!