The abuses in Argentina that Francis and his successor in Buenos Aires totally ignored

Pope celebrates Women's Day as he and Jesuits protect nun abuser Father Rupnik.

And he protected his homosexual friends and abusers Zanchetta, Pineda and many others.

Beautiful hypocrisy!   

Cathcon: And entirely contradicting the supporters of Pope Francis who suppose no one has done more.

"In ten years of Papacy, there have been no gestures of reparation from Francis or the Argentine bishops' conference, which has never publicly summoned the victims or set up an independent investigation commission. Despite the proclaimed "zero tolerance" on abuses in the Church, the pope has never done anything concrete: "Many times, in recent years, victims in Argentina have asked him to participate in public discussions - says Cuattromo - but Francis has never responded, nor to invitations from our association nor the personal letter I wrote to him in 2015. What can one think of a pope who ignores the victims of his own country?”.

FEDERICA TOURN, Domani , 09 March 2023

A few days before the celebrations for the ten years of his pontificate, on 8 March Pope Francis found himself at the entrance to the Vatican with one of his compatriots, an unexpected guest and in truth very little inclined to celebrate. Sebastián Cuattromo, 46, the victim of a pedophile priest, asked about him at the Porta Angelica, accompanied by his wife Silvia Piceda, who also survived sexual abuse when she was a child.

The two met because of the common past and fell in love: together with a new family, in 2012 they formed Adultxs por los derechos de l'infancia, an association of survivors of child abuse that fights for children's rights . Theirs is a story that bears witness to the ability to transform suffering into civil strife: the pope, however, was not impressed and did not receive them.

"THE MOST UNPUNISHED CRIME ON EARTH"

In recent weeks, the couple has been facing a journey across Europe to make visible what they define as "the most unpunished crime on earth", violence against minors: the Roman stage, organized with the help of the L'Abuso Network, takes on a strong symbolic power, especially close to March 13, the anniversary of the election of the pope. Ten years are a good opportunity to take stock and, on the front of the fight against clerical violence, that of Francis is made up more of shadows than lights. During the press conference, which was held on March 9 in the foreign press office, the Argentine couple reaffirmed the importance of publicly denouncing child sexual abuse, in the face of a high level of impunity for the perpetrators and the silence of the institutions.

FACTS

The silence of the Church, Cuattromo know it well. He was repeatedly abused in 1989 and '90, when he was 13 and attending the College of the Congregation of the Marianist Brothers in Buenos Aires, by Father Fernando Picciochi, a priest and teacher at the school. Thanks to Cuattromo's denunciation and after a long judicial battle, his abuser was finally sentenced to twelve years' imprisonment in 2012 for repeated violence against minors, a sentence later ratified in 2016 by the Argentine Supreme Court.

"Picciochi was on the run for ten years also thanks to institutional complicity - explains Cuattromo in Domani - he lived under a false identity in the United States and in order to be able to try him it was necessary to request extradition. The international arrest warrant that hung over him for a long time was not effective due to an error by the judiciary and executive power in Argentina, suspicious errors that allowed this man to remain in the shelter of justice for years".

However, no condemnation came from the Church. When Cuattromo denounced his abuser in 2000, the Marianist College not only did not want to acknowledge its responsibilities as the institution in which the abuses took place, but also offered Picciochi's victims an under-the-table economic agreement as long as they did not tell what happened. "The Marianists demanded our silence in exchange for money," says Sebastián Cuattromo, who refuses and eventually manages to obtain civil compensation.

COOLNESS TOWARDS THE VICTIMS

In those years, Cardinal Jorge Bergoglio was Archbishop of Buenos Aires but the climate that reigned in the Argentine Catholic hierarchy was one of coldness towards the victims and solidarity with the aggressors, if not outright cover-up. "In mid-2002, when the Marianist College wanted to silence the victims and my abuser was on the run, I turned to the Archdiocese of Buenos Aires, asking to speak to Cardinal Bergoglio," Cuattromo recounts.

“I was received by a secretary, Father Martín García Aguirre, and I explicitly asked him if the archdiocese condemned the attempt by the Marianist Brothers to silence the victims. The secretary listened to me, said he would report to the cardinal and then let me know that Bergoglio was inviting me to address Bishop Mario Poli, then head of the Vicariate of the Barrio de Flores, which had territorial jurisdiction over the College".

Monsignor Poli, the current Archbishop of Buenos Aires, after a series of talks with Cuattromo, finally communicates to him the response of the ecclesiastical authorities: "He clearly told me that the Catholic hierarchy of Buenos Aires headed by Bergoglio endorsed the position taken by the school – says Cuattromo – and he did it in a very arrogant way, with the awareness of being in a position of power compared to me, and with a profound underestimation of the seriousness of the crime and the suffering of the victims".

NO CALL

In ten years of papacy, there have been no gestures of reparation from Francis or the Argentine Bishops' Conference, which has never publicly summoned the victims or set up an independent commission of inquiry. Despite the proclaimed "zero tolerance" on abuses in the Church, the pope has never done anything concrete: "Many times, in recent years, victims in Argentina have asked him to participate in public discussions - says Cuattromo - but Francis has not never replied, neither to invitations from our association nor to the personal letter I wrote to him in 2015. What can one think of a Pope who ignores the victims of his own country?".

FACTS

A year ago, the last request for a meeting, sent by Cuattromo to Bergoglio through the Apostolic Nunciature: no official response but only an informal suggestion, arrived from a third person, who invited him to go to the Vatican during a general audience "to kiss the Pope's hand". Not exactly the kind of proposition the victims were expecting, and one that almost sounds like a joke. However, Cuattromo tried again by appearing in person but the Pope, once again, did not open the door for him.

Source

Cathcon: The Pope blames clericalism for the sex abuse crisis....the reason for the cover-up is rather closer to home.