Why the Pope plans no visit to Argentina under any circumstances

This is an article from Prensa Obrera, a very left wing newspaper.  I reproduce it in full and disagree totally with its conclusions.  Only the deluded would think that the modern Catholic Church is reactionary.  The interest lies in the extended catalogue of unanswered accusations.  It also illustrates the political intimacy between the Pope and the Peronists.  Cathcon has focused on the past on the remarkable case of Bishop Zanchetta but more to follow on the other cases. The Pope would clearly be less welcome in Argentina than Harry and Meghan in England, a strong contrast to Pope John Paul II on his election.

Jorge Mario Bergoglio assumed the leadership of the Vatican promising that he would put an end to ecclesiastical abuses, in the midst of the crisis that took Benedict XVI, related in part to pedophilia. In 10 years of papacy, the situation has not changed one iota. Francisco has been covering up abusive priests, and the sexual abuse persisted.

Between 2020 and 2021, the Italian Church received 86 complaints for cases of abuse, of which more than half were recent. The Church in the United States received, between 1950 and 2018, more than 20,000 complaints from minors who claimed to be victims of abuse. In Chile, more than 200 members of the Chilean Church were investigated for cases of sexual assault; During his visit to that country, in 2018, Francis was accused of not having taken any action against the cases. Only after that episode did he accept the resignation of (only) seven Chilean bishops. A report from the Vatican itself, in which reality is surely distorted on purpose, pointed out that in 2018 the Church received around 600 complaints of abuse per year.

In February 2019, the summit on abuses took place in the Vatican, convened by Francis, which resolved that the cases be dealt with within the walls of the Church and within the framework of canon law, that is, the continuity of impunity. That same year, the director, editorial board and editors of the women's supplement of L'Osservatore Romano, a Vatican City newspaper, resigned from their posts denouncing censorship (the supplement echoed allegations of sexual abuse against nuns within the Catholic Church) and regimentation of the Church. In 2021, the Vatican acquitted, in the first trial held there, two abusive priests.

The cover-up of abusive priests is part of a political orientation. The Vatican protects them deliberately, consciously. An investigation published in February 2022 by the Italian newspaper Domani maintained that the Vatican continued to give, under the government of Francis, instructions to prevent ecclesiastical pedophilia scandals from spreading. In some cases, to protect them, the Church transfers the abusive priests to other dioceses or parishes, instead of denouncing them. In others, victims are pressured to keep abuses secret. This policy is functional to sustaining an extremely violent oppression.

In Argentina, Bergoglio's policy regarding abuses clearly shows the paedophile nature of the institution. He recently appointed Víctor Manuel “Tucho” Fernández to a Vatican position that is linked to the orientation of the educational establishments owned by the clergy throughout the world.

Fernández is known for having openly defended Raúl Sidders, who was denounced for abusing an 11-year-old girl when he served as chaplain of the San Vicente de Paul School in La Plata and for harassing different students. In addition, Fernández threatened Prensa Obrera with legal action for having collected the stories of Sidders' victims, which were essential for the cases to come to light and for the initiation of a process to fight impunity.

In turn, Bergoglio covered up for the ex-bishop of Oran, Gustavo Zanchetta, who was denounced for abusing seminarians. In 2017, before the allegations appeared, Zanchetta left Oran and went to the Vatican. In 2020 it became known that he was reinstated in his duties as an employee of an organization that manages the Vatican's real estate and financial properties.

In 2020, Francisco protected the Paraná priest, José Francisco Decuyper, whom his nephew criminally denounced for sexual abuse. Sergio Decuyper, the victim, said that the Pope contacted him to ask him not to make the case public, at the same time that he told him that his homosexuality was a disease.

The Pope also covered up for an abusive priest from the City of San Rafael, Mendoza. Carlos Miguel Buela was confined by Pope Francis to a Monastery of San Isidro de Dueñas in Palencia (Spain) after he was repeatedly accused of sexually abusing other priests" (Infobae, 12/1).

At the beginning of March, Víctor Fernández, from his place as Archbishop of La Plata, placed Federico Wechsung as the second auxiliary Bishop of the Archdiocese of La Plata. Wechsung defended, as did Bergoglio and Fernández, the abusive priest Eduardo Lorenzo, whom he also defined as a "victim of enormous tension and suffering."

As can be seen, the policy of covering up abusive priests has continued under Francis. The opposition of the Church and the Pope to the ESI is consistent with this orientation; the curia is against children being able to identify and report abuse, and young people having access to contraceptives. It is a policy whose objective is also to reinforce the regimentation and subjugation of children and youth.

That governments like those of Alberto Fernández and Cristina Kirchner support Bergoglio politically, and the churches financially, is an affront against the movement of women and sexual diversities, and against the movements that fight against impunity for abusive priests.

The fight against impunity for abusive priests, and for the effective application of the ESI, must go hand in hand with a thorough fight against the capitalist governments that support this reactionary institution.

Source