The extraordinary relationship between Pope and convicted Bishop

"The Pope knew … and did nothing"

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Gustavo Oscár Zanchetta, former Bishop of Orán, was sentenced to four and a half years for sexually abusing seminarians but only spent a week in prison. Now he is under house arrest.

"The Pope has known for years" what Monsignor Gustavo Oscár Zanchetta was doing, says a victim of the former Bishop of the Diocese of San Ramón de la Nueva Orán in Argentina.  The victim is outraged at the news that Bishop Zanchetta, a convicted sex offender, has been granted house arrest.

On March 4th, the former Bishop of Orán was sentenced to four and a half years in prison for sexually abusing two seminarians and transferred to the penal system. After only four months, the prison gates opened again.  The bishop was allowed to serve under house arrest, which he will spend in a church institution.

The Zanchetta case made headlines in the summer of 2017 when the bishop left his diocese overnight and disappeared.  The result was numerous rumours that initially connected him with the mismanagement that prevailed in the dioceses.  Zanchetta had also been responsible for the finances in his home diocese of Quilmes until he was appointed bishop and had left them in a shambles.

Half a year after his mysterious departure from Orán, Zanchetta reappeared, now in Rome, where he was given a senior position in the Apostolic Administration of Goods by Pope Francis, which was very surprising.  It was said the fox had been allowed to guard chickens again after messing up the finances of two diocese.  How was that possible?

At that time, it became apparent that Msgr Zanchetta was a protégé of Pope Francis.  Zanchetta had worked closely with the then Cardinal Bergoglio in the Argentine Bishops' Conference before his appointment as bishop.  Zanchetta's promotion came just months after Pope Francis was elected.  Pope Francis announced his appointment as Bishop of Orán in July 2013 during his visit to Brazil for World Youth Day.

In 2018, completely different backgrounds for Zanchetta's escape from Argentina came to light. Homo-pornographic material was found on his cell phone.  Then the revelations rolled over.  As bishop, he had tried to seduce his own seminarians and abused some of them.  A letter from 2015 signed by the then governor of the seminary, the two vicars general of the Diocese of Orán and other high-ranking diocesan priests became known.  The letter was a call for help to Rome for protection from their own bishop.  The Regens and the undersigned prelates reported in horror at the bishop's sexual misconduct and the need to protect the seminarians from their own bishop.

It also became known that Pope Francis had been informed about Zanchetta's perverse activities since 2015 but had done nothing.  This was confirmed in the statements of the former Apostolic Nuncio in the USA, Archbishop Carlo Maria Viganò, who revealed in August 2018 that, in his capacity as Nuncio, he had informed Pope Francis in June 2013 of Cardinal Theodore McCarrick's homosexual double life.  Pope Francis, on the other hand, rehabilitated the cardinal and made him a strong man in the US Church.  McCarrick became Pope Francis' key advisor when it came to the United States and the appointment of bishops there.  It was npt until the New York Times revealed McCarrick's double life in July 2018 that Pope Francis responded by saying he knew nothing about it.

Zanchetta was also able to hide in the Vatican in the hope of not being prosecuted by the Argentine judiciary because of his stay abroad.  However, things turned out differently.  Argentine prosecutors insisted on prosecution and issued an international arrest warrant in late 2019.  Eventually Zanchetta turned herself in.  The process dragged on for three years.  During this time the bishop was always at large.  He was finally "released" from his job in the Apostolic Administration of Goods after the media had expressed clear criticism.

On March 4, 2022, he was sentenced to four and a half years in prison for sexually abusing seminarians, aggravated because they were dependent on their bishop. But Zanchetta was only jailed for a week.  He spent just a little time in jail before he was transferred to a private clinic “for health reasons”.

On July 8, his request to serve his prison sentence under house arrest was granted – not in the private house he had mentioned but in a church facility, an old people's home for priests. This institution is headed by the diocesan priest, Diego Calvisi, who assisted in the trial of Zanchetta and also assisted the victims.  The judiciary obviously wants to ensure that Zanchetta is subject to a certain degree of supervision, which Don Calvisi sees as guaranteed.

The victims, but also many believers in the Diocese of Orán, see the house arrest as the latest affront to their former bishop, who is their sponsor.  Zanchetta had been put in charge by Francis of the diocese, where there was little enthusiasm.  The Diocese of Orán had the reputation of a "conservative" diocese among Bergoglians in the Argentine church.  Francis seems to have had two purposes in sending his protégé: to promote the prelate who is close to him and at the same time to reform a conservative diocese.

Francis did something similar in May 2018, when he retired his main opponent in Argentina, Archbishop Héctor Rubén Aguer, and appointed one of his closest confidants, his ghostwriter Victor Manuel Fernández, as the new archbishop of La Plata, the country's most important diocese after Buenos Aires.  Francis "eliminated" his conservative counterpart in the Argentine episcopate, promoted his protégé and made a change of direction in the Archdiocese of La Plata. Such multi-purpose strategic moves seem to fascinate Francis.

Bishop Zanchetta with Pope Francis in St. Peter's Square

"Three seminarians have remained ... waiting for three years to be ordained"

El Tribuno de Salta journalist Silvia Noviasky interviewed one of Zanchetta's victims, whom she called M.C. The former seminarian goes beyond the sentence:

"It's about a lot of money and nepotism: the Pope has known for years what was being done."

One of the two former seminarians for whose abuse Zanchetta was convicted had previously stated that he was "not clear in his head" and had hardly slept since learning that the bishop had been placed under house arrest and that Zanchetta's attorney was now active in a canonical pre-examination.

The young man Silvia Noviasky spoke to denounced "accomplices" that would still cover for Zanchetta today. He referred to Pope Francis, whom he accused of playing deaf despite early warnings and to the current Bishop of Orán, Monsignor Luis Scozzina.

He himself received no support from the church:

"We alone must overcome something that has marked us for life."

Most of the seminarians whom Zanchetta abused or attempted to seduce left the seminary, as did the interviewee:

“There are three who have gone ahead and are awaiting ordination but they will never get it because they have acted as witnesses for us.  Three years have passed and they are still awaiting ordination.”

The news of Zanchetta's house arrest "produced powerlessness, uneasiness and restlessness in him":

"I think the judges didn't take into account what the psychiatric report says about him, which is that he is manipulative that he doesn't see reality as it is but as he wants it to be.  He was granted house arrest in a convent where children and the elderly who are at risk go.  It is something the judiciary does not take into account that the place where Zanchetta will be is a place where manipulable people can go.”

When asked if he would be against house arrest even if Zanchetta had no contact with anyone, M.C. said:

“Yes, because the trial took place in Orán, a small town where we all know each other and where we all owe each other favours because we know each other or know each other's secrets.  These favours from people with a lot of power moved heaven and earth so that he had a good time from the first day of his sentence.  He never actually went to prison but was in prison for a week and then in a private clinic.  The Church and Scozzina [now Bishop of Orán] are accused of caring for a prisoner for whom they are not responsible.”

The victims never received a reply from the Holy See on the canonical complaint. They do not know whether a procedure has been initiated or not.  When asked, there was only a general reference to the "papal secret".

“I'm surprised Zanchetta hasn't been restored to lay status yet, as there are examples like Rosi and Lamas who have been restored to lay status so why does Zanchetta keep his dignity as bishop?”

When asked by the journalist, M.C. tried to give an answer himself:

“There is a lot of nepotism, and that comes from Pope Francis preaching some things but doing the opposite even though he knew everything that was being done years ago. There was evidence and photographs...

There is also an order signed by the Pope to conduct this preliminary canonical inquiry in Orán. Iniesta [Zanchetta's attorney] raises financial issues, demands bills from the priests who intervened or testified against Zanchetta. They impute to these priests who have testified that they have children and in this way seek to seek and condemn a canonical trial against them in order to silence or discredit them.  The purpose of this investigation is to distract attention from Zanchetta, find other culprits in order to polish Zanchetta's image."

“The perpetrator gets paid for everything.  And the victim... ?

There are also other priests who have been found guilty of abuse:

“Some will be tried, others will not [M. C. gives the name of a priest].  A priest gets two lawyers, the victim none.  The boy who reported this priest was not even asked if he needed help.  He is doing his best and will appear in court with a public defender.  How can it be that the diocese pays the perpetrator's lawyers while the victim has to appear in court with a public defender because he does not have the money?

How can it be that the Church is not burdened with complicity, but pays for all of Zanchetta's expenses, for his stay in the monastery, in the private clinic and the lawyers... ?

Zanchetta's lawyer, who is now also active in matters of canon law, did everything to keep Zanchetta from prison, which finally succeeded with house arrest.  The lawyer had been staying in a five-star hotel the whole time, according to M.C.

The current Bishop of Orán is helping Zanchetta but not the victims. That was "not okay," according to M.C.

Silvia Noviasky had already conducted an interview with one of the two abused seminarians last March, shortly after Zanchetta's conviction, who testified:

“Zanchetta always boasted that he was a friend of the Pope, that the Pope called him, or that he called him and told him about us.  When he came back from Rome he said: 'I was with the Pope, I was in the Pope's bed'.”

Literally: "Estuve con el Papa, estuve en la cama del Papa."

"As if to say, 'He [Pope Francis] is a very close friend of mine who is very close to me.'"