Posted on 09/24/2018 6:09:30 AM PDT by ebb tide
More than on the Baltic countries that Francis has visited in recent days, the attention of the media has inexorably focused on what he will say at the end of the journey, on the plane back to Rome, when he will again be interviewed on the scandal of ex-cardinal Theodore McCarrick.
Since the sensational allegations of former United States nuncio Carlo Maria Viganò, who has accused Francis of having covered up that scandal in spite of being aware of it, more than a month has gone by. Without Francis having given the slightest response to the accusations.
Meanwhile, however, another storm is gathering over the pope. And it comes from his native land, Argentina, as well as from neighboring Chile.
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Chile’s plight is known. Jorge Mario Bergoglio publicly maintained right to the end the innocence of bishops and cardinals of that country accused of having committed or covered up a large number of instances of sexual abuse. For a long time he dismissed as “calumnies” the accusations of the victims. And he was still doing this during his visit to Chile, in January of this year. Only to then give in under the weight of the evidence, calling all 34 Chilean bishops to Rome and obtaining from them a statement of their willingness to resign.
After this reversal, Francis in fact set in motion the resignation of seven bishops.
But he has left in place, on the council of nine cardinals who assist him in the governance of the universal Church, Cardinal Francisco Javier Errázuriz Ossa, the former archbishop of Santiago, suggesting only that in the future he will resign for reasons of age.
He has left in place, as archbishop of Santiago, the other cardinal, Ricardo Ezzati Andrello, in spite of the fact that the Chilean prosecutor has summoned him to testify on the concealment of abuse.
He has left in place as military ordinary and president of the episcopal conference Santiago Silva Retamales, in spite of the fact that he too is one of the seven Chilean bishops who have been called to testify so far. With the risk, as the most famous of the victims, Juan Carlos Cruz, has said, that “in February he may already be in prison,” during the very days when Pope Francis will assemble in Rome the presidents of all the episcopal conferences of the world, to discuss how these scandals should be addressed.
Illuminating on the latest developments of the Chilean criminal investigation are these two articles by Inés San Martín on “Crux,” the leading portal in the United States for information on the Catholic Church:
> As Pope ponders Chile, criminal prosecutors charge full steam ahead
> Chilean hero expelled from priesthood over sex abuse charges
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In Argentina, compared with Chile, the storm is only beginning. But in recent months the accusations of sexual abuse have undergone an authentic surge. The Associated Press has calculated that today there are at least 66 priests, friars, and nuns who have been accused of abuse. And there is one case among these that has now inflicted a direct hit on Bergoglio.
The case in question concerns Julio Grassi, a priest of the diocese of Moron, famous for providing shelter for street children in various places in Argentina.
In 2009, Grassi was sentenced to 15 years in prison for the sexual abuse of minors.
But he continued to proclaim himself innocent, and made appeals. With the full support of the Argentine bishops, they too convinced of his innocence.
At the time, the Argentine episcopal conference was headed by Cardinal Bergoglio, archbishop of Buenos Aires. And in 2010, the episcopal conference commissioned an attorney and criminologist, Marcelo Sancinetti, to make a counter-investigation of the case.
The result was a 2000-page report in four volumes. In it, the accusations against Grassi are dismantled one by one, and the main accuser, named Gabriel, is discredited.
Now these volumes have come into the possession of the Associated Press, which released news of this in the middle of this month of September. At the end of the fourth and last volume, it says that it was above all Bergoglio who commissioned the counter-investigation. That Bergoglio about whom Grassi himself said, when the first trial against him was underway, that “he never let go of my hand.”
The spokesman of the Argentine episcopal conference now says that the report was intended to provide the bishops with “more information in view of the canonical procedure” concerning the priest.
But Gabriel’s attorney, Juan Pablo Gallego, says instead that the report ended up on the desks of several Argentine judges who were supposed to issue appeal verdicts.
These judges, however, on March 21, 2017 definitively confirmed the original sentence, sentencing Grassi to 15 years in prison, which he is serving in the prison of Campana in the province of Buenos Aires.
Grassi is still a priest and says Mass, albeit with a ban on exercising the ministry in public. His canonical case is pending at the Vatican congregation for the doctrine of the faith.
Gabriel, his victim and accuser, says that he and his attorney wrote a letter to Bergoglio two months after his election as pope, and had it delivered to the Vatican nunciature in Buenos Aires on May 18, 2013.
In the letter, he lamented the “denigration” of which he saw himself the victim in the report commissioned by the bishops, confided his sufferings, and asked to be received in audience by the pope, of whom he asked “help in reclaiming the faith.”
He never received a reply.
For details on the Grassi case and on other Argentine scandals, see these two articles from the Associated Press:
> Pope’s role in study of Argentine sex abuse case draws fire
> Clerical sex abuse disclosures skyrocket in pope’s Argentina
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In the illustration above, the latest issue of the German magazine “Der Spiegel,” with the cover title “Do not bear false witness” and with an extensive article largely dedicated to the sexual scandals that have emerged in the Argentine Church.
(English translation by Matthew Sherry, Ballwin, Missouri, U.S.A.)
Face it. Vile predatory homosexuals have permeated the Catholic Church and will never willingly or gracefully release their perverted grip. Pope “who am I to judge” Francis is their champion and protector.
Who to believe? Grassi or Gabriel?
at the very least Francis should suffer a very public excommunication, although the Church’s harsher punishments from the past might also be appropriate.
is anyone worried about a major schism occurring?
This Pope is no more a Christian than Bin Laden. IMO.
Sadly, that appears to be true.
Do not leave Jesus because of Judus. Time to clean house!
The Church is already in schism or civil war.
They were burned at the stake once upon a time.
Grassi has had at least 2 other accusations brought, also by boys. For some reason these did not come to final trial. These were orphan children living in the shelter-hostels managed by Grassi!
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