VATICAN CITY
National Catholic Register
March 4, 2018
By Edward Pentin
The testimonies, submitted by former Archdiocese of Tegucigalpa seminarians to a Vatican investigation, reinforce existing concerns about the archdiocesan auxiliary bishop’s conduct.
The Register has obtained the text of two testimonies, submitted by former seminarians to a Vatican investigator, detailing allegations of serious sexual misconduct by Auxiliary Bishop Juan José Pineda Fasquelle of the Archdiocese of Tegucigalpa, Honduras.
The content of the testimonies, along with previously known allegations of sexual misconduct by the bishop and additional information provided to the Register by sources within Honduras, has reinforced widespread existing concerns about the conduct of Bishop Pineda.
These concerns are heightened by the fact that Bishop Pineda has been in charge of the archdiocese since early January, while its archbishop, top papal adviser Cardinal Oscar Andrés Rodriguez Maradiaga of Tegucigalpa, undergoes chemotherapy treatment in Houston, Texas, for prostate cancer.
The new information has also renewed questions about why Pope Francis has not taken any action with respect to a report submitted by the Vatican investigator, which reportedly has been in the Holy Father’s hands since May of last year.
Some of the findings of the apostolic visit to the archdiocese were disclosed Dec. 21 by Italy’s L’Espresso newspaper. The investigation was carried out at the Pope’s request by retired Argentine Bishop Alcides Jorge Pedro Casaretto in May 2017 and addressed allegations of serious financial mismanagement within the archdiocese, as well as sexual misconduct allegations involving Bishop Pineda.
L’Espresso reported that Cardinal Maradiaga may have been involved in mismanaging Church funds and may also have accepted hundreds of thousands of dollars from the Catholic University of Tegucigalpa. The article said that Cardinal Maradiaga is being accused of investing more than $1.2 million in some London financial companies, including Leman Wealth Management. Some of that money has now vanished, it said. Bishop Pineda is also tied to some, but not all, of the alleged financial irregularities within the archdiocese.
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