The Argentine justice found the Bishop Emeritus of Oran, Monsignor Gustavo Zanchetta, guilty of the crime of sexual abuse and sentenced him to 4 and a half years in prison.
According to the newspaper El Tribuno, the judges who were in charge of the process in the town of Orán, MarÃa Laura Toledo Zamora, Raúl Fernando López, and Héctor Fabián Fayos, found Zanchetta guilty of the “crime of continued simple sexual abuse aggravated by being committed by a recognized religious minister to the detriment of GG and of M.C.
The magistrates ordered the immediate arrest of the Bishop and that, once the sentence is final, he be registered "in the Genetic Data Bank."
Journalist Silvia Noviatsky posted a photo on Twitter in which she comments that "relatives and friends of seminarians are crying outside" the court because the sentence against Zanchetta "was very little for the damage he did."
The trial against Zanchetta began on February 21 and during it the Bishop denied the charges of sexual abuse against him, while the victims "ratified before the Court their statements made in the investigation stage, one of them pointing out that the priest he would have made 'loving proposals' and required 'massages'”.
Originally the trial was scheduled to begin on October 12, 2021, but it was suspended at the request of the Prelate's defender, Enzo Gianotti, who asked the judges to wait for the files of the canonical process that Mons. Zanchetta is undergoing in the Vatican. .
In February 2019, the Congregation for Bishops entrusted the Archbishop of Tucumán (Argentina), Msgr. Carlos Alberto Sánchez, with a preliminary investigation of the complaints against Msgr. Zanchetta, accused of sexual abuse and abuse of power. Then the case went to the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, in charge of dealing with these cases.
Pope Francis accepted the resignation of Bishop Zanchetta from the position of Bishop of Oran on July 31, 2017.
What the Pope said in 2019
In an interview granted to the Mexican journalist from Televisa, Valentina Alazraki, in May 2019, the Holy Father referred to the case, including the criticism received for having appointed Msgr. Zanchetta as advisor to the Patrimony Administration of the Apostolic See ( APSA) in December 2017, a position he held until October 2021.
The Pope said that some described the Bishop as “despot, bossy, well, economic management of things is not entirely clear, it seems, this is not proven. But certainly the clergy felt they were not well treated by him”, so “as a clergy they made a complaint to the Nunciature”.
In this sense, the Pontiff said that he called the Nunciature and the Nuncio stressed that "the complaint is serious for mistreatment, abuse of power, we could say, right?"; so he sent Bishop Zanchetta to Spain "to do a psychiatric test."
The Pope indicated that “the result of the test was normal” and they advised that he receive therapy once a month in Madrid, so Msgr. Zanchetta did not return to Argentina.
Regarding the criticism for alleged financial mismanagement, the Pope said that “economically he was disorderly, but he did not have poor financial management because of the works he has done. He was messy, but the vision was good.”
Francis explained that after receiving the results of the preliminary investigation that was carried out on Bishop Zanchetta in 2019, “I saw that a trial was necessary. So I passed it on to the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, where they are doing the trial.”
Pope Francis then concluded: "How the trial will end, I don't know, I leave it in their hands."
The Vatican has not disclosed the details of the canonical process against Bishop Zanchetta and has not reported whether it has concluded.
Until the publication of this note, the Vatican has not disclosed whether or not there will be any statement on the conviction against Bishop Zanchetta.
Translated from- ACI Prensa
Image - Buenos Aires Times
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