ARGENTINA
The Tablet
AN ARGENTINE judge is investigating the background to the dramatic resignation last month of Bishop Juan Carlos Maccarone of Santiago del Estero. He is looking into allegations that the bishop, a respected and influential local figure, was the victim of a conspiracy.
The bishop resigned after a secretly made video reached the Vatican, in which he was allegedly shown in what was described as an “intimate relationship” with a 23-year-old mini-cab driver, Alfredo Serrano. The case set off a storm of media speculation about the shadowy interests that lay behind the video, which Serrano admitted he had made himself. Suspicion immediately focused on powerful local political and business groups. The bishop’s supporters took to the streets of the city in their thousands last week to demand an honest investigation.
In a letter to the bishops’ conference on Thursday last week, Bishop Maccarone complained that “interests using technology that implied a blackmail plan” had taken advantage of his good will to undermine his moral character and authority. This point was echoed two days later in an open letter, signed by a number of priests and religious in Santiago, in which they referred to “perverse practices of spying and extortion”.