ARGENTINA
Los Angeles Times
By Patrick J. McDonnell, Times Staff Writer
BUENOS AIRES — A reform-minded Roman Catholic bishop is caught in a compromising video with a young man.
In a heavily Catholic country, that ought to be scandal enough. But in Argentina, a nation struggling to escape a demoralizing legacy of corruption, economic catastrophe and brutality, the mystery seems to be: Who orchestrated the filming of the bishop with his male consort, and why?
Church officials and others hint at a conspiracy in a backward northern province that harks back to an uncomfortable era of political mafias and secret police.
The cleric, Bishop Juan Carlos Maccarone, resigned Aug. 18 as prelate of impoverished Santiago del Estero shortly after the video surfaced showing the 64-year-old bishop cavorting in his cassock with a mostly naked 23-year-old part-time cabbie, cellular phone salesman and money changer.
No one, including Maccarone, has questioned the authenticity of the 15-minute clip, which his partner apparently shot surreptitiously at the bishop's residence.
The bishop's resignation reportedly was quietly accepted by Pope Benedict XVI during World Youth Day celebrations in his native Germany.