Shocking decision in Argentina to parole sexual abuse Bishop protected by Francis

 The Fourth Chamber of the Court of Appeal ordered the immediate parole of Gustavo Oscar Zanchetta, the former bishop of Orán, sentenced in 2022 to four years and six months in prison for aggravated sexual abuse against two former seminarians. This decision not only sparks controversy but also reopens the wounds of those who trusted that justice, at least this time, would be capable of protecting the victims over and above ecclesiastical privileges.

Zanchetta never knew what it meant to be behind bars. From the beginning, he was granted house arrest in a convent, then the unusual authorization to travel to Italy under the pretext of medical treatment, and now, parole that returns him to the streets under merely decorative rules of conduct. A judicial course that makes it clear that his cassock weighed far more than the voices of the victims.

The case was a watershed: for the first time, a sitting Argentine bishop was investigated and convicted of sexual abuse. But that historic milestone was marred by the impunity with which his sentence was served. While survivors continue to bear the pain and stigma, the former bishop emerges virtually unscathed, protected by a system that seems designed to forgive the powerful and punish only the weak.

The Church sheltered him, the courts favored him, and the Argentine state was, once again, indebted to the victims of clerical abuse. The Zanchetta case is a brutal reflection: when it comes to priests, bishops, and hierarchs, the Argentine justice system is not blind, but selective.

Where, then, are the rhetoric of "zero tolerance" toward abuse? What message do the victims who denounced Zanchetta and endured years of complicit silence receive today? The answer is clear: in this country, impunity still has a cassock.

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The links between Francis and the judiciary were known to be close but this is ridiculous