ROME (ITALY)
Daily Beast
January 20, 2019
By Barbie Latza Nadeau
Pope Francis was apparently told in 2015 and again in 2017 that an Argentine priest he once called his “spiritual son” and elevated to bishop before he became pope had taken naked selfies, exhibited obscene behavior including public masturbation, and had harassed seminarians, according to an exclusive report by the Associated Press.
In early January the Vatican confirmed that it had just learned that Bishop Gustavo Zanchetta, who resides in Vatican City with complete immunity, faces credible criminal allegations in Argentina for sexually abusing seminarians in the remote Argentine diocese of Oran.
But Juan Jose Manzano, the former vicar where Zanchetta allegedly carried out the sexual harassment that included sending nude photos of himself in various stages of arousal, told the Associated Press that he first reported Zanchetta’s lewd behavior to the papal nuncio or ambassador to the Holy See, who then delivered the complaints to the Vatican in 2015, two years after Francis was elected.
The Vatican spokesman did not immediately respond to questions about the AP report on Sunday. The pope has summoned Catholic leaders to Rome from Feb. 21-24 for a crisis summit to address the systematic global clerical abuse scandal. Revelations like these that imply that the pope himself may have been involved in the cover-up of errant priests will do nothing to set the stage for much-needed change.
Manzano claims he even sent nudie photos of the priest to Rome as proof to back up the complaint. Manzano told the AP that Francis then actually summoned Zanchetta to Rome to discuss the matter, in direct contradiction with the Vatican press office, which claims the news of sexual impropriety on the part of Zanchetta only came to light in late 2018.
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