SILENT SCREAMS: The Sex Abuse of Deaf Orphans in Pope Francis’ Backyard

https://www.thedailybeast.com/the-sex-abuse-of-deaf-orphans-in-pope-francis-backyard

ROME—“Giuseppe” was born to impoverished parents outside of Verona in northern Italy with a congenital birth defect that left him deaf and mute. When it became clear that his parents could not provide for him—much less communicate with him—they brought him to the local Catholic church, which enrolled him in their Antonio Provolo Institute for deaf and mute children. It was here he learned to communicate through standard sign language and other visual cues. It was also where he became one of scores of victims of the priests and religious brothers who ran the school.

When he was 11, a monk who worked at the institute as an educator started teaching “special secret signs” for things like masturbation, fellatio, penis, and anus. “I didn’t understand at first just why this man was teaching me these strange secret signs,” Giuseppe explained in an exclusive, and very emotional, interview in Rome. “Then one day it became very clear when one of the priests made the secret sign for fellatio when we were alone, which was followed by him pushing his erect penis into my mouth.”

From that point on, Giuseppe said through his interpreter—often using fast and somewhat violent sign language as tears ran down his face—priests and the brothers would give a sign to the young boys and then take them to special rooms Giuseppe says were used for “time out” punishments or as resting areas. He said that because everyone was deaf at the school except those who worked there, no one could hear the screams and cries of the young boys when the abuse took place. Giuseppe said that on several occasions he and others tried to write down what was happening, but because their letters and notes were given to the priests and brothers to be mailed out, they were likely intercepted.“You would see friends with tears rolling down their faces and you knew exactly what had just happened. You didn’t need to hear to know.”— “Giuseppe,” a deaf survivor of clerical sex abuse

“Of course we screamed and cried,” he said. “Sometimes you would see priests coming into the dormitory at night, or you would see friends with tears rolling down their faces and you knew exactly what had just happened. You didn’t need to hear to know.”

The abuse against Giuseppe allegedly lasted for seven full years, until he turned 18 and left the institution. Whenever he tried to explain what was happening to him inside the school, no one understood because the language he had been taught to describe the sexual acts was incomprehensible to sign-language readers. “It was so frustrating that no one understood what we said,” Giuseppe explained, adding that even after he left the institution and lived in another Catholic charity house, he had a difficult time making anyone understand what had happened. “It took a long time for us to be believed.”

Giuseppe is one of 67 young boys who have been named in court documents and were allegedly abused by more than two dozen priests and brothers at the Provolo Institute, according to Verona prosecutors who have been investigating the allegations for nearly a decade and who plan to bring it to trial later this year.

One of the most notorious alleged offenders was Father Nicola Corradi, now 83, who was moved to South America in the mid-1980s after Giuseppe and others’ abuse claims came to light. Rather than handing him over to secular authorities or asking the mother church in Rome to defrock him, the bishop transferred him to the Provolo Institute in Mendoza, Argentina. Several other priests accused of abuse in Verona were also transferred to the sister school in Argentina, but have since passed away.

In Argentina, court documents there would later allege that Corradi was soon up to his usual practices and, despite credible reports from Italy that were beginning to surface, he was allowed to stay in his job at the school for the deaf, where he apparently found like-minded abusers. He was finally arrested in 2016 on allegations that he abused 22 deaf and mute children over the course of nearly three  decades. Three other priests were arrested with him. There are more than 60 civil trials going on across Argentina against priests like Corradi who allegedly abused children.

Julieta Añazco was one of those victims at the Provolo Institute. She says she was first abused by Father Ricardo Giménez, who worked at the institute. He first attacked her when she was just seven years old, she says, when the two were in a tent being used as a confessional at a Catholic youth festival. The abuse went on for three years before her parents found out and filed a complaint. Giménez was then transferred by the Archdiocese of Buenos Aires, under the direction of then-Cardinal Jorge Mario Bergoglio, now Pope Francis.

Añazco is now a pivotal member of Argentina’s branch of the Survivor’s Network of Those Abused by Priests, known as SNAP. She told the German magazine Der Spiegel in a cover story out last week that she and another group of students from the Provolo Institute tried to meet on several occasions with Bergoglio before he was elected as pope because he was the highest ranking prelate in the diocese at the time. Then, in July 2013, she and 13 other victims wrote a letter to the new pontiff to remind him about what happened in his native country under his watch. Giménez, who professes his innocence, is still an active priest although he was arrested and briefly detained. “They can’t undo these terrible things.”— “Giuseppe”

That letter was never answered by Francis, but Añazco did receive proof of receipt. She is lobbying a court in Argentina to open a civil suit against the pope for overlooking complaints when he was the head of the archdiocese. The watchdog website Bishop Accountability outlines five cases that Pope Francis overlooked as cardinal. One concerns Father Julio Cesar Grassi.

Earlier this month, the Associated Press uncovered a secret 2,000-page forensic study commissioned by Bergoglio in 2010 to study whether Grassi, a priest who worked at the Provolo Institute and founded a home for street children he is alleged to have abused, and who already had been convicted in secular courts and sentenced to 15 years in prison, was truly guilty. The report concluded that he was not and that the case did not merit a criminal trial. An appellate court upheld the conviction against the priest, but he has not been defrocked.

Argentina probes sex abuse at deaf school, what Vatican knew

https://cruxnow.com/global-church/2016/12/24/argentina-probes-sex-abuse-deaf-school-vatican-knew/

LUJAN DE CUYO, Argentina – Children told prosecutors that two Roman Catholic priests repeatedly raped them by an image of the Virgin Mary inside the small school chapel in remote northwestern Argentina. Only their tormenters would have heard their cries, because the other children at the school were deaf.

The clerical sex abuse scandal unfolding at the Antonio Provolo Institute for hearing-impaired children in Mendoza province would be shocking enough on its own. Yet dozens of students in the Provolo Institute’s school in Italy were similarly abused for decades, some of whom allegedly by the same priest who now stands formally charged of raping and molesting young deaf Argentines.

And the Vatican knew about Father Nicola Corradi since at least 2009, when the Italian Provolo students went public with tales of shocking abuse against the most vulnerable of children and named names.

While the Vatican ordered an investigation and sanctioned four accused priests, Corradi apparently never was sanctioned for his alleged crimes in Italy.

The Verona diocese apologized to the Italian students in 2012. After the students again named Corradi as an abuser living in Francis’s native Argentina in a 2014 letter to the pope and the Verona bishop, the Vatican still took no action. Though this year a Vatican official said Pope Francis wanted to assure the victims that the church was taking measures to protect children and prevent sexual abuse.

But at least 24 students of the Provolo institute in Argentina have now come forward seeking justice for the abuse they say they suffered at the hands of Corradi, 82, another priest, Father Horacio Corbacho, 55, and three other men. The five were arrested in late November by police who raided the school in Argentina’s Mendoza province and found magazines featuring naked women and about $34,000 in Corradi’s room.

All the suspects are being held at a jail in Mendoza and have not spoken publicly since their arrest. Corradi’s attorney, Pablo Kletzl, on Friday declined to comment on the case.

Victims and prosecutors say the anal and vaginal rapes, fondling and oral sex allegedly committed by the priests took place in the bathrooms, dorms, garden and a basement at the school in Lujan de Cuyo, a city about 620 miles (1,000 kilometers) northwest of Buenos Aires.

The school has “a little chapel with an image of the Virgin and some chairs where the kids would get confession and receive the communion. That’s where some of the acts were happening,” former lead prosecutor Fabrizio Sidoti told The Associated Press of the stories he heard from the alleged victims after the scandal broke.

Children from other regions of Argentina who lived at the dorms were said to be especially vulnerable and targeted often. The tales they have told are harrowing: One of the alleged victims told AP she witnessed how a girl was raped by one priest while the other one forced her to give him oral sex.

Argentine courts said the alleged victims in the case in that country could not be publicly identified and AP does not identify people who may have been sexually assaulted unless they voluntarily identify themselves.

“They always said it was a game: ‘Let’s go play, let’s go play’ and they would take us to the girls’ bathroom,” said one of the women who claims that she was abused at the school in Argentina.

The prosecutor is expecting more than 20 other people to provide testimony and more people claiming abuse to come forward.

Pope Francis has not spoken publicly about the case, and the Vatican declined to comment on Corradi’s arrest.

Advocates of sex abuse victims by priests question how Francis could have been unaware of Corradi’s alleged misdeeds, given he was publicly named by the Italian victims starting in 2009 and most recently in 2014.

“No other pope has spoken as passionately about the evil of child sex abuse as Francis. No other pope has invoked ‘zero tolerance’ as often. No other pope has promised accountability of church superiors,” said Anne Barrett Doyle, co-director of BishopAccountability, an online resource about clerical abuse.

“In light of the crimes against the helpless children in Mendoza, the pope’s assurances seem empty indeed.”

On Dec. 11, the pope appeared in a video using sign language to wish deaf people worldwide a Merry Christmas – a gesture that fell particularly flat in Argentina as Catholics struggle with the enormity of the Provolo scandal.

“Either he lives outside of reality or this is enormously cynical … it’s a mockery,” said Carlos Lombardi, an attorney who specializes in canon law.

The Provolo case first exploded in Italy in 2009, when the Italian victims went public with stories of abuse after what they said were three useless years of negotiations with the diocese of Verona, where the institute has its Italian headquarters.

The 67 victims alleged sexual abuse, pedophilia and corporal punishment at the hands of priests, brothers and lay religious from the 1950s to the 1980s. At the time, 14 of the victims wrote sworn statements and videotaped their testimony detailing the abuse they suffered. They named 24 priests, lay religious and religious brothers in a list that was published online.

Corradi was one of those included in the list, which specified he was in Argentina at that time.

In 2010, the Vatican ordered the Verona diocese to investigate the claims. One of the victims identified Corradi.

The investigation results were sent to the Vatican. In a Nov. 24, 2012 letter, the Verona diocese wrote to the Provolo victims with the results of the Vatican-ordered inquiry and apologized.

A copy of the letter provided to the AP listed only five priests accused, four of them sanctioned with a fifth excused because of his age and Alzheimer’s. Some of the original 24 accused had already died, others had left the congregation. For those sanctioned, the Vatican ordered punishments including living a life of prayer and penance and being placed under surveillance away from children.

Corradi wasn’t among the five. But the Provolo victims didn’t stop pushing for investigation of other priests.

On Dec. 31, 2013, they wrote to the pope asking him to institute an independent commission of inquiry to investigate the charges of clerical sex abuse in Italy.

On Oct. 20, 2014, they wrote Francis and the Verona bishop naming 14 priests and lay religious from the institute who were still alive and in ministry who allegedly had sexually abused them. They named Corradi, and noted that he and three others were in Argentina.

“We must point out that the behavior of the church is not in the least bit in line with the ‘zero tolerance’ stance of Pope Francis,” they wrote, listing the 14 priests and their current locations.

“Such behavior makes us think that the church has no interest in the suffering provoked by priests who sexually abused deaf children, priests who continue to live their lives normally, priests who never apologized to victims, priests who never asked forgiveness and for whom the church itself attempts to let the time pass in hopes that everything is forgotten.”

No response was immediately received.

More than two years later, the Vatican’s No. 3 official, Archbishop Angelo Becciu, acknowledged receipt of the letters. In a Feb. 5, 2016, response, he said that as far as the Provolo victims’ request for a commission of inquiry was concerned, he had forwarded the proposal to the Italian Bishops’ Conference.

Becciu said in that letter that the pope wanted to assure the Provolo victims that the church was taking measures to protect children and prevent sexual abuse.

The Italian Bishops’ Conference didn’t respond to an email seeking comment on whether such a commission was under consideration.

“I’m convinced that some hierarchy covered this up. They sent the wolf to take care of the sheep,” said Alejandro Gulle, the chief prosecutor in Mendoza.

The Mendoza Archbishopric says it was unaware of the accusations against Corradi. “A religious man comes to a diocese and you trust the legitimate superior,” spokesman Marcelo De Benedectis said.

He said that allegations aired by the case have prompted the Mendoza diocese to take measures such as demanding a sworn statement from priests stating that they don’t have a history of violating canon or criminal law.

The Vatican’s Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith has been informed about the Mendoza accusations, he added.

Viviana Avila, who teaches at the school, told the AP that among the professors “none of us suspected anything,” nor received any complaints from the students. She said the teachers finished classes at midday and never came near the dorms.

Unlike the Verona case, the alleged crimes in Mendoza have not expired due to the statute of limitations and could lead to up to 50-year jail sentences for a conviction.

A prosecutor is also probing accusations by a man who says he was abused at the Provolo Institute in the city of La Plata when Corradi first arrived in Argentina in the 1980s.

“We want justice to be served. We might be able to get long sentences. I hope they’re the maximum,” said Gulle, the Mendoza prosecutor. “But we’ll never compensate the spiritual damage suffered by these children.”

Bergoglio Implicated In the Sexual Abuse Of Deaf Orphans In Argentina

https://4christum.blogspot.com/2018/10/bergoglio-implicated-in-sexual-abuse-of.html

As a Cardinal in Argentina Pope Francis was told that priests were raping deaf children but did nothing to stop the sexual abuse and punish the abusers.

In a sordid report from the Daily Beast comes a tragic tale of the systematic rape and sexual abuse of deaf orphans by Catholic priests and monks, a story that begins in Italy and ends in Argentina, where the future Pope Francis was then known as Cardinal Jorge Mario Bergoglio.

The story explains how deaf children were groomed for sexual abuse, noting:

The priests and monks created their own sick sign language to command the deaf and mute boys to perform oral sex and be sodomized.

The details of the story are sickening, and begin in Italy, with a boy named “Giuseppe,” who “was born to impoverished parents outside of Verona in northern Italy with a congenital birth defect that left him deaf and mute.” The deaf boy was eventually enrolled at the Antonio Provolo Institute for deaf and mute children.

The Daily Beast reports: When he was 11, a monk who worked at the institute as an educator started teaching “special secret signs” for things like masturbation, fellatio, penis, and anus. “I didn’t understand at first just why this man was teaching me these strange secret signs,”

Giuseppe explained in an exclusive, and very emotional, interview in Rome. “Then one day it became very clear when one of the priests made the secret sign for fellatio when we were alone, which was followed by him pushing his erect penis into my mouth.” Giuseppe reports: Of course we screamed and cried. Sometimes you would see priests coming into the dormitory at night, or you would see friends with tears rolling down their faces and you knew exactly what had just happened. You didn’t need to hear to know.

Eventually Giuseppe grew up and escaped the abuse, and made it his mission to report it. He is now “one of 67 young boys who have been named in court documents and were allegedly abused by more than two dozen priests and brothers at the Provolo Institute.”

After the abuse claims of Giuseppe and others became public, the offending priests and monks were quietly shipped off to Argentina.

This is standard practice for the Catholic church, and has been for decades. When a priest is caught raping and sexually assaulting children, he is quietly moved to a new location, where the pattern resumes. The offending priests from Italy were shipped to another school for the deaf run by Catholics, only this school was in Argentina, where Pope Francis was serving as Cardinal Jorge Mario Bergoglio.

The Daily Beast reports: One of the most notorious alleged offenders was Father Nicola Corradi, now 83, who was moved to South America in the mid-1980s after Giuseppe and others’ abuse claims came to light. Rather than handing him over to secular authorities or asking the mother church in Rome to defrock him, the bishop transferred him to the Provolo Institute in Mendoza, Argentina. Several other priests accused of abuse in Verona were also transferred to the sister school in Argentina, but have since passed away.

At the Provolo Institute in Mendoza, Argentina, under the direction of Father Nicola Corradi, the abuse of deaf children continued.

Corradi “was finally arrested in 2016 on allegations that he abused 22 deaf and mute children over the course of nearly three  decades.

Three other priests were arrested with him. There are more than 60 civil trials going on across Argentina against priests like Corradi who allegedly abused children.”

As for the abuse in Argentina, The Daily Beast notes: Julieta Añazco was one of those victims at the [Argentinian] Provolo Institute. She says she was first abused by Father Ricardo Giménez, who worked at the institute. He first attacked her when she was just seven years old, she says, when the two were in a tent being used as a confessional at a Catholic youth festival. The abuse went on for three years before her parents found out and filed a complaint.

Giménez was then transferred by the Archdiocese of Buenos Aires, under the direction of then-Cardinal Jorge Mario Bergoglio, now Pope Francis. In other words, Pope Francis knew about the sexual abuse, but did nothing to prosecute the criminals. He simply transferred the child raping priests to a new location.

According to the report, victims from the Provolo Institute repeatedly asked for a meeting with the then Cardinal Jorge Mario Bergoglio, now Pope Francis. However, Bergoglio refused to meet with the victims. In 2013 Añazco and other victims from the Provolo Institute sent a registered letter of protest to Pope Francis, reminding him that he had ignored the reports of abuse. Pope Francis has not replied. Father Giménez is still an active priest.

Nun arrested for allegedly abusing deaf children in Argentina

https://cruxnow.com/ap/2017/05/06/nun-arrested-allegedly-abusing-deaf-children-argentina/

A Roman Catholic nun from Japan has been arrested and charged on suspicion of helping priests sexually abuse children at a school for youths with hearing disabilities in Argentina, authorities said.

Kosaka Kumiko was also charged with physically abusing the students at the Antonio Provolo Institute for children with hearing impairment in northwestern Mendoza province.

Local media showed the 42-year-old nun in handcuffs and wearing her habit and a bullet-proof vest as she was escorted by police to a court hearing. Kumiko, who was born in Japan but has Argentine citizenship, denied any wrongdoing during the eight-hour hearing late Thursday.

Authorities say that Kumiko lived at the Provolo Institute from 2004-2012. She had been on the run for about a month before she turned herself in this week.

The case against the nun was launched after a former student accused of making her wear a diaper to cover up a hemorrhage after she was allegedly raped by priest Horacio Corbacho.

Corbacho, fellow priest Nicola Corradi and three other men were arrested last year after they were charged with sexually abusing at least two dozen students at the Provolo Institute. They are being held at a jail in Mendoza and have not spoken publicly since the arrest. If found guilty, the accused face 10 to 50 years in prison.

Corradi had earlier been accused in Italy of abusing students at the Provolo Institute in Verona, a notorious school for the deaf where hundreds of children are believed to have been sexually assaulted over the years by two dozen priests and religious brothers.

Advocates for clerical sex abuse have expressed anger that Corradi wasn’t sanctioned by the Vatican and allegedly went on to abuse children in Pope Francis’ native Argentina.

Victims and prosecutors say the anal and vaginal rapes, fondling and oral sex allegedly committed by the priests took place in the bathrooms, dorms, garden and a basement at the school in Lujan de Cuyo, a city about 620 miles (1,000 kilometers) northwest of Buenos Aires.

A Vatican investigative commission recently visited Mendoza to learn more about the case against the priests.

PRIESTS STAND TRIAL IN ARGENTINA FOR SEXUALLY ABUSING DEAF AND MUTE CHILDREN

thttps://catholiccitizens.org/news/88424/priests-stand-trial-in-argentina-for-sexually-abusing-deaf-and-mute-children/

In a case known to Pope Francis since he was archbishop of Buenos Aires, priests who worked at a former institute for deaf and hearing-impaired children are being tried in Argentina for the sexual abuse of impaired children.

The first trial in a series of trials that will involve both priests, nuns and staff began Monday for the sexual abuse of former students at the Antonio Próvolo Institute for Deaf and Hearing Impaired Children in Mendoza, Argentina.

Cdl. Jorge Bergoglio, then-bishop of Buenos Aires, definitely knew about the sexual abuse at the institute.

Father Nicola Corradi, Fr. Horacio Corbacho and Armando Gómez have been accused of sexually abusing deaf and hearing-impaired children from 2004 to 2016. Corradi pleaded not guilty, while Corbacho and Gómez have yet to enter their pleas.

Former directors, employees and two nuns will also be tried for allegedly participating in the abuse or having knowledge of it without taking action.

Depending on the individual offenses, the defendants face up to 20–50 years.

Monday’s trial lasted about two hours. The charges included the corruption of minors, sexual touching and rape.

Pope Francis’ Inaction

One victim insisted that, before becoming pope, Cdl. Jorge Bergoglio, then-archbishop of Buenos Aires, definitely knew about the sexual abuse at the institute. She said that the victims who came forward tried to meet the cardinal more than once — to no avail.

The Vatican did investigate the Próvolo Institute in 2010, acknowledging in 2012 that the abuses did occur; however, aside from a few light sanctions, the Vatican has said or done nothing further to date.

Another victim said that victims wrote several letters to the Vatican in 2013 and 2014. Not having received a response, some of those victims went to Rome to meet with Pope Francis and hand-delivered a letter to him.

In that meeting, the Pope asked for forgiveness for what happened and requested the victims pray for him. He did “nothing else,” according to that victim.

Yet another victim, who was also present at that meeting with the Pope, confirmed the testimony, saying that Pope Francis said, “Forgive me” and then said a prayer.

In the face of inaction ― first as a cardinal and now as the pope ― some of these pedophile priests are being housed as guests in Vatican accommodations or freely roaming the streets. 

Father Eligio Piccoli, a priest who once worked at the Próvolo Institute’s main location in Verona, Italy, was resting in a Vatican accommodation in Negrar, near Verona, where a reporter approached him with some questions.

“Those things that the Association of the deaf is telling, are they true?” asked the reporter.

“Something is true, there is a lot of truth, but because they are corrupt,” Piccoli began to answer.

“Who?” asked the reporter.

“The deaf-mute are all corrupt and have interests to protect,” answered Piccoli.

“But are these stories true?” asked the reporter.

“Yes, they’re true,” said Piccoli.

Piccoli then talked about how most of the priests had engaged in these activities with the impaired children, including himself.

He spoke of a “cuddly” child who came into his room from the cold one day. According to Piccoli, the child exposed himself and the pedophile priest lost his head, performing some sexual act with the child.

The reporter then asked, “Anyway, was what happened in that room sinful?”

“No, it depends … because males with males was a joke, those are jokes. However, if with a woman, it becomes more dangerous,” said Piccoli. “What is sin? It’s having fun with the evil, being pleased with the evil. But if you do something for a need, for a joke like this, come on.”

“As one has the smoking habit, one has the habit of — you feel the urge to unload, that’s it,” concluded Piccoli.

And certainly, as pope, he could have acted years ago.

Father Eliseo Pirmati, an Italian priest who worked in both Verona and La Plata, and who absconded to Verona in December 2017 to avoid prosecution in Argentina, was found freely wandering the streets of Verona in June. After Mass at Santa Teresa degli Scalzi in Verona one day, the pedophile priest was confronted by a journalist as he walked back to the Próvolo Institute in the city.

The abuse at the Próvolo Institute occurred in Argentina (La Plata and Mendoza) and Italy (Verona).

Próvolo Institute in Mendoza, Argentina

Anne Barret Doyle, co-director of Bishop Accountability, told the Associated Press that neither the Vatican nor the Pope will likely respond.

When the Verona institute made headlines in 2009 and 2010, Cdl. Bergoglio was president of the Argentine bishops’ conference.

“He could have ordered an investigation of the Mendoza and La Plata schools then,” she said. “And certainly, as pope, he could have acted years ago. He was notified by the Verona victims of Corradi’s presence in Argentina.”

Corradi, who stood trial on Monday, seems to have been the ringleader.

WATCH: Pope Francis Gets Caught in Gigantic Lie Regarding a Sexual Abuse Case in Argentina

https://pjmedia.com/video/watch-pope-francis-gets-caught-in-gigantic-lie-regarding-a-sexual-abuse-case-in-argentina/

https://youtu.be/ngFG25SYQCs

Pope Francis faced accusations of covering up priestly abuse while he was the archbishop and cardinal in Buenos Aires, a 2017 French documentary reveals. A segment of the documentary, “Sex Abuse in the Church: The Code of Silence,” investigates the pope’s assertion that sexual abuse never happened in his diocese.

Investigative journalist Martin Boudot traveled to Buenos Aires to find out if the pope was telling the truth. Contradicting the pope’s assertion, a group of victims claimed they were sexually abused while Bergoglio [now Pope Francis] was archbishop and told Boudot their cries for justice were ignored.

“Regarding pedophile priests, in his book Pope Francis says there were no cases in his diocese,” said Boudot, prompting derisive laughter from the group.

“He wants people to believe that, but it’s a lie,” said one of the victims. They said they all tried to contact the archbishop after they were abused, but their cries fell on deaf ears.

“He received all the celebrities, like Leonardo DiCaprio,” said one of the women. “And for us, not even a quick letter to say he was sorry.”

Even worse, in one case, Bergoglio tried to influence the Argentinean justice system in an effort to protect Father Julio Grassi, who is serving the remainder of a 15-year jail sentence after being convicted of sexually abusing teenage boys.

The Argentinian church did everything it could to get Grassi acquitted and the trial was spread over 15 years, according to Boudot. In 2010, in fact, the Argentine Episcopal Conference led by Cardinal Bergoglio ordered a counter-inquiry called “Studies on the Grassi Case.”

Boudot said the 2,800-page counter inquiry was actually “a confidential, internal Argentinian Church legal text” that accused the children of “falsification, lies, deceit and invention.” The purpose of the study was to overturn the court’s decision and get Fr. Grassi acquitted on appeal.

“So the pope did commission a counter-inquiry to try to have a priest who had been sentenced for pedophilia acquitted,” Boudot reported. What’s more, Bergoglio is said to have repeatedly sent the “study” to various judges right before Fr. Grassi’s various appeal hearings.

At the center of the counter-inquiry commissioned by Bergoglio was an orphan boy who was allegedly Grassi’s main victim. Now an adult, the man spoke about the case for the first time to Boudot anonymously because he’s still afraid of reprisals. He explained to Boudot that he received threats and people broke into his home and stole evidence he could have used in the trial. “In the end, the courts took action for my safety and placed me in the witness protection program,” he said.

“I’ll never forget what Father Grassi kept repeating at his trial: ‘Bergoglio never let go of my hand.’ Now Bergoglio is Pope Francis, but he has never gone against Grassi’s words. So I’m certain he never let go of Grassi’s hand!” he added.

Unable to get an interview with the pope, Boudot and his team went to the Vatican to see if they could hand a letter with written questions about the Grassi case to the pope during his public audience at St. Peter’s Square.

After managing to hand the letter to a plainclothes Swiss Guard as the pope passed by, one of the reporters got close enough to shout a question to the pope, who had exited the popemobile.

“Your Holiness, in the Grassi case, did you try to influence Argentinian justice?” the woman shouted. Pope Francis glared at her and curtly replied, “no.”

“No? Then why did you commission a counter-inquiry?” she pressed.

With a wave of his hand, the pope replied, “I never did.”

Detailed Summary of Case of Rev. Julio César Grassi, Drawn from Media Coverage and Legal Documents

https://www.bishop-accountability.org/Argentina/Detailed_Grassi_Summary.htm

Grassi was a Salesian until 1991, when he became a priest of the Morón diocese. In 1993, he founded Fundacion Felices los Niños (the Happy Children Foundation), aimed at rescuing street children. According to a news article, the foundation cared for 6,300 children in 17 homes nationwide from 1993 to 2002.

On November 29, 2000, an anonymous complaint filed in the Juvenile Court of Morón accused Grassi of corrupting minors. The case lay dormant until 10/23/2002, when Telenoche Investiga,an investigative news show on Argentina’s Channel 13, aired a program alleging Grassi’s sexual abuse of five boys, ages 11 to 17. It included an interview with a young man, his face obscured, who said that Grassi performed oral sex on him in 1998, when he was 15. Within days, Grassi was arrested and charged with 17 counts of abuse of three boys, who were 9, 13, and 17 when the alleged incidents occurred. Grassi denied all the allegations.

In November 2002, the executive committee of the Argentine bishops’ conference issued a statement denouncing a “campaign” intended to “blur the image” of the Catholic Church and “cause society to lose its trust” in the institution. It warned against making “condemning judgments about individuals or institutions before a fair trial.” Although the statement did not refer to a specific attack, some news analysts interpreted it as the bishops’ response to public uproar about Grassi and the recently arrested Archbishop Storni. The Executive Committee was headed by Archbishop Karlic of Paraná and his first and second vice-presidents, Monsignor Miras of Rosario and Cardinal Bergoglio of Buenos Aires.

Grassi’s trial, one of the longest in Argentine history, began on 8/20/2008 and lasted for nine months, with testimony from 130 witnesses.  On June 9, 2009, he was found guilty of two acts of aggravated sexual assault and corruption of minors in the case of “Gabriel.” He was acquitted of 15 other counts of abuse of “Luis” and “Ezekiel.” He was sentenced to 15 years in prison but allowed to remain free pending his appeal. He was prohibited from going alone to his Foundation’s offices and children’s homes but could enter them if accompanied by an individual whom he could designate.

On June 20, 2009, 49 priests and 50 laypeople issued a statement opposing the court’s decision to let Grassi remain free. They also criticized the “silence of ecclesial leaders before this case and others.”  The signers said, “We see that other bishops’ conferences like Colombia’s have spoken up in similar cases, and we do not understand your silence, that has the appearance of ‘hushing up’ and ‘tolerance.’”

On September 14, 2010, the Criminal Appeals Court of Buenos Aires province denied Grassi’s first appeal and confirmed the 15-year sentence. A few days later, the local court in Morón ruled again that Grassi could remain free until his conviction was final. He was prohibited only from entering the offices of the Happy Children Foundation. Subsequent attempts by the prosecutor and victims’ attorneys to have Grassi detained were rejected twice, in November /2010 by the Appeal Court of Morón and in June 2011 by the Criminal Appeals Court of Buenos Aires province.

On March 9, 2012, the bishop of Morón, Luis Eichhorn, wrote to the Court of Morón, asking that Grassi be allowed to transfer back to the Morón diocese. (Grassi had been living somewhere in the diocese of San Justo.) Eichhorn asked specifically if Grassi could live in the town of Hurlingham, at LaBlanquita, a house with a swimming pool and large park, on the same block as the Happy Children headquarters, where Grassi had assaulted Gabriel. On March 10, /2012, the Court granted Bishop Eichhorn’s request.

On April 24, 2013, the Criminal Court of Morón ruled affirmatively on a plaintiff’s motion that Grassi had violated conditions of his freedom by referring to a victim in a TV interview. Grassi’s lawyers announced they would appeal the decision. On September 19, 2013, the Supreme Court of Buenos Aires province rejected Grassi’s appeal and ratified his 15-year sentence. On September 23, 2013, the Morón Criminal Court No.1 ordered that Grassi immediately go to prison to begin serving his sentence. In February 2014,  Grassi filed a request from prison requesting to be free until the national Supreme Court reviews his case.

He remained in prison. In Novmeber 2016, he was convicted of using his Happy Children Foundation funds to pay the rent of his private home, for which he received an additional 2-year sentence.

In a March 2017 unanimous decision, the Supreme Court upheld the original 15-year sentence. A day later, the archdiocese of Morón stated that the canonical investigation of the allegations against Grassi is ongoing.

Because of his pre-trial detention, Grassi benefits from a “Two-for-One” sentencing law and will complete his sentence in 2026. In 2021, he’ll be eligible for conditional release.

Father Grassi and Cardinal Bergoglio

Throughout the trial, Grassi claimed to be supported by numerous bishops, especially Cardinal Bergoglio, who, he said, “never let go of my hand [and] is always at my side.” Though long a public supporter of the Happy Children Foundation, which ran homes in the Buenos Aires archdiocese, Bergoglio said little to defend Grassi publicly after his arrest. In a 2006 interview with Veintitres magazine, Bergoglio said that “justice will determine” Grassi’s innocence, although “there is a media campaign against him, a condemnation in the media.” In August 2008, a spokesperson for the Argentine bishops’ conference, then headed by Bergoglio, said that Grassi’s claim of the cardinal’s backing was “an affirmation that he’s making on his own.” He added that the bishops “are respectful of the rule of law” and that innocence must be presumed until proven otherwise. 

Indeed, after Grassi was found guilty in June 2009, Bergoglio secretly authorized an extensive critical examination of Grassi’s prosecution and of the three original plaintiffs. In his capacity as president of the Argentine Bishops’ conference, Bergoglio approved the hiring of a leading criminal defense lawyer and legal scholar, Marcelo Sancinetti, to do the private investigation.

The resulting study vigorously asserted Grassi’s innocence and, according to a Página/12 report, denied even the prevalence of child sexual abuse itself. It reportedly was circulated to judges who had yet to make determinations in the case. The first volume, with 423 pages, debunked the accusations of “Ezequiel,” of which Grassi was acquitted; volume two, with 646 pages, attacked the credibility of “Gabriel,” of whose abuse Grassi was convicted. As of spring 2013, a third volume had been produced, and a fourth and final volume was expected.

The bishops’ commissioned exoneration of Grassi was revealed in December 2011 by Juan Pablo Gallego, an attorney for the Committee for Oversight and Implementation of International Conventions for Children’s Rights, who had represented the plaintiffs at the trial. Gallego called the study a “scandalous instance of lobbying and exerting pressure on the Court” and accused the bishops of “further hindering a process that has outrageously granted the condemned priest a situation of almost unthinkable freedom.”

Grassi remained free pending appeal until September 2013, when his second appeal was rejected by the provincial court, and the Morón Criminal Court No.1 ordered that he finally go to prison.

SOURCES:

• Priest Scandal | Made a Television Appearance this Morning to Declare His Innocence. Father Grassi Ordered Detained for Abuse of Minors, Clarín, 10.24.2002 [Translation]; en Español

• Statement of the Executive Committee of the Bishop Conference: The Church of Argentina Denounces a Campaign Made Against It, Clarín, 11.06.2002 [Translation]; en Español

• “Queremos que intervengan”, Página/12, 12.02.2003

• Golpes y navajazos para callar a Gabriel, by Darío Aranda, Página/12, 12.02.2003

• Don’t Protect that Monster, by Miguel Jorquera, Página/12, 6.09.2006 [Translation]; en Español

• Argentine Priest on Trial for Sexual Abuse, Associated Press, 8.19.2008

• Bishopric Distances Itself from Grassi’s Words, La Nación, 8.21.2008 [Translation]; en Español

• Grassi Trial Resumes, La Nación, 8.21.2008 [Translation]; en Español

• The Very Long Case of Father Grassi, by Carlos Rodríguez, Página/12, 5.10.2009 [Translation]; en Español

• Bergoglio Puts Father Grassi’s Foundation under Microscope, by Sergio Rubín, Clarín, 5.22.2009 en Español

• Archbishop Office’s Clarification, Archbishop of Buenos Aires, Office of the Press, Buenos Aires, 5.26.2009 [Translation]; en Español

• Grassi: “Bergoglio Never Let Go of My Hand”, Infobae, 5.26.2009 [Translation]; en Español

• Grassi Sentenced to 15 Years, Oral Court No. 1 of Morón, 6.09.2009 [Court web page] [Full text] [Brief summary]

• The Church Takes Its Time, by Sergio Rubín, Clarín, 6.10.2009 [Translation]; en Español

• Between Victim and Institutional Responsibility, by Washington Uranga, Página/12, 6.11.2009 [Translation]; en Español

• Priests Don’t Forgive Grassi’s Sins, Críticas de la Argentina, 6.20.2009 [Translation]

• Father Grassi’s 15-Year Sentence Is Confirmed, Clarín, 9.14.2010 en Español

• Basis for Confirmation of 15-Year Sentence, Criminal Appeals Court of the Province of Buenos Aires, 9.15.2010  [Court web page] [Full text]

• Grassi Can Remain Free Pending Appeal, Oral Court No. 1 of Morón, 9.20.2010 [Court web page] [Full text]

• New Ruling: Grassi a Free Man, La Nación, 9.20.2010 [Translation]; en Español

• Demand for Grassi’s Detention Is Rejected, Criminal Chamber of Morón, 11.09.2010 [Court web page] [Full text]

• New Demand for Grassi’s Detention Is Rejected, Criminal Appeals Court of Buenos Aires, 6.28.2011 [Court web page] [Full text]

• The Church Edited a Book in Support of Priest Grassi: Reportedly Distributed Among Various Judges for “Lobbying”, Clarín, 12.17.2011 [Translation]; en Español

• Convicted Priest Has a Penpal: The Bishops’ Conference of Argentina Commissioned a Book to Defend Father Julio César Grassi, by Carlos Rodríguez, Página/12, 12.17.2011 [Translation]; en Español

• I Hope It Isn’t True, Op-Ed by Daniel Pliner, La Nación, 12.20.2011 [Translation]; en Español

• Priest Julio César Grassi to Remain under House Arrest, Buenos Aires Herald, 3.08.2012

• Court Annuls Priest Grassi’s House Arrest, Buenos Aires Herald, 6.01.2012

• A Letter for Grassi, by Carlos Rodríguez, Página/12, 6.03.2012 [Translation]; en Español

• What Can and Can’t Change after the Election of the Argentine Cardinal, Juan Cruz Esquivel Interview Excerpt, Página/12, 3.14.2013 [Translation]; en Español

• Humility and Solemnity Won’t Suffice, Mallimaci Interview Excerpt, Página/12, 3.17.2013 [Translation]; en Español

• Pope Francis Was Often Quiet on Argentine Sex Abuse Cases As Archbishop, by Nick Miroff, Washington Post, 3.18.2013

• Bergoglio Accused of Having Protected Father Grassi, La Prensa, 3.20.2013 [Translation]; en Español

• Hard Questions about Francis in Argentina and a Lesson from Chile, by John L. Allen, National Catholic Reporter, 4.12.2013

• Confirmation of Morón Court’s Verdict, Criminal Appeals Court of Buenos Aires, 4.23.2013 [Court web page] [Full Text]

• El obispado de Morón expresa sus “dudas” sobre la culpabilidad de Grassi, Infojus Noticias, 4.24.2013

• Denuncian Lobby de Grassi Ante La Corte Bonaerense y El Vaticano, by Federico Trofelli, Tiempo Argentino, 9.15.2013

• 15-Year Prison Term for Grassi Confirmed, Buenos Aires Herald, 9.19.2013

• Río Negro Bishop Defended Priest; Said “He’s Completely Innocent”, Diario La Prensa, 9.19.2013 [Translation]; en Español

• Priest Grassi Sent to Prison, Court Confirms 15-Year Sentence, Buenos Aires Herald, 9.23.2013

• Argentine Priest Jailed for Sex Abuse, by Shane Romig, Wall Street Journal, 9.24.2013

• Audio, Court Testimony, “Gabriel,“ diarioveloz.com, 9.29.2013 [audio]

• Cronología del caso Grassi, taringa.net, 9.30.2013

• Argentine Priest Serving Time for Sex Abuse Loses Bid for Freedom Pending Appeal, Global News, 12.29.13

• Grassi insiste con pedir su excarcelación, Tiempo Argentino, 2.22.14

• Causa Padre Grassi, website with links to selected articles and documents; contends that the allegations against Grassi are slanders

• Uno por uno, los 9 curas que ya fueron condenados por abusar de menores en Argentina, Clarín, 9.6.2017

• El Padre Grassi suma dos años de condena por malversación de fondos, La Nacion, 11.14.2017

• La Corte Suprema confirmó la condena de 15 años de prisión al cura Julio César Grassi, Infobae, 3.21.2017

• Communicado del Obispado de Morón sobre la situación canónica del sacerdote Julio César Grassi, Obispado de Morón, 3.21.2017

• El Obispado de Morón aseguró que la situación de Grassi depende de lo que disponga el Vaticano, La Gaceta, 3.22.2017

• Morón recortó la pena del padre Grassi, La Nacion, 4.10.2017

No Mercy for Sex Abuse Victims

https://remnantnewspaper.com/web/index.php/fetzen-fliegen/item/2969-no-mercy-for-sex-abuse-victims

“And peace to the children, on this special day on which God became a child, above all those deprived of the joys of childhood because of hunger, wars or the selfishness of adults.”  – Pope Francis’ Christmas Urbi et Orbi Message 2016

Indeed, Pope Francis. The joys of childhood are deprived to the victims of clergy sexual abuse by the selfishness of adults. Despite his global popularity, the reality is that Francis is all talk, and no action when dealing with clerical child sex abuse. Not surprisingly, as the novelist, V.S. Naipaul observed about Argentines, “it is the Argentine attitude to suppress and ignore.”

Notwithstanding his incessant chatter about mercy and human trafficking, this Argentine Pope continues to suppress and ignore the ongoing clerical child sexual abuse. The latest case of papal inertia and deafness is especially heinous since it involves the sexual abuse of hundreds of disabled deaf and mute children in Italy and Argentina by several priests, giving tragic magnification to the oft used term, voiceless victims. This coverup lies squarely on Bergoglio’s watch.

During the 3 1/2 years of the Francis Papacy, the self-appointed Merciful One is not so merciful when it comes to the victims of clergy sex abuse. As Archbishop of Buenos Aires, Bergoglio left a record of abysmal apathy and inaction to root out clergy sex abuse. This pattern lives on behind the Vatican walls.

Who could forget the now familiar Francis fury raging at the faithful Catholics of Osorno Chile who pleaded with the Pope not to elevate a bishop who had allegedly protected a serial child predator? Francis ignored and suppressed their concerns as “stupid.” Who could forget the Pope’s personal appointment to the Synod on the Family of Cardinal Danneels, the renowned Belgian prelate who protected predator clerics? Don’t forget child abuse victim Peter Saunders, who served on the papal child protection commission and was forced to take a leave of absence for criticizing the Pope’s decisions on clerical sex abusers.

Wake up, Francis fawners, his mercy meme rings as hollow and empty, as hope and change.

It’s difficult to imagine a worse scenario for victim children then the latest case to cross Francis’ desk involving Fr. Nicholas Corradi. Fr. Corradi worked in the famous Provolo Institute for deaf and mute children in Italy for many years. Fr. Corradi was one of several priests who allegedly abused disabled children at the Provolo Institute.

The victims’ families argue that the Vatican knew about Fr. Corradi since at least 2009, when he was publicly accused of abusing deaf and mute students at the Provolo Institute in Verona, Italy. The Italian Provolo students went public with tales of shocking abuse against the most vulnerable of children and named several priest perps. While the Vatican sanctioned four accused priests, Corradi apparently was not punished for his alleged crimes in Italy and shockingly, Corradi left Italy and relocated to the South America at an Argentine school for deaf and mute students in Mendoza Argentina.

Despite allegations of sexual abuse by Corradi from Italian students, the Vatican apparently made no effort to immediately notify the Argentines, and recall Corradi to Italy. Additionally, the Argentine Conference of Bishops, then headed by Cardinal Bergoglio made no inquiries into the sudden arrival of Fr. Corradi at the school for deaf children in Mendoza Argentina. They should have been on high alert since modern Church history are full of predatory priests relocating to other countries and continents to avoid prosecution for child predation. Vetting Fr. Corradi for the sake of vulnerable deaf children would have been a simple precaution for their protection. Try Google for starters.

Tragically, and not surprisingly, the same clerical sex abuse scandal unfolded at the Argentine Provolo Institute for hearing impaired children. Like the dozens of children similarly abused in Italy, victims stepped forward to allege rape and sexual abuse by Fr. Corradi and another priest and staff members. And the Vatican knew about the Rev. Nicola Corradi since at least 2009.

Papal Deafness

In 2014, the Italian victims wrote directly to Pope Francis branding Corradi as a paedophile and flagged that he was living in Francis’ native Argentina. Where is the infamous Francis mercy and sense of urgency for disabled Argentine children? Pope Francis did nothing and would not open an independent investigation into Fr. Corradi’s alleged sexual abuse of these high risk children in Argentina. One would think that Argentine deaf and mute children at risk of sexual abuse by a Catholic priest would garner top priority from the Argentine pontiff!

The letter to Pope Francis details the heartbreakingly brutal and painful journey and treatment of abuse victims by the Vatican:

We are a group of former students of the Antonio Provolo Institute for the Deaf and Dumb of Verona (Italy) who told the press about the abuses committed by paedophile priests at the Institute. This was done only after three years of fruitless contacts with the Curia of Verona and in order to prevent what happened to us from happening to other children.The Bishop of Verona, who had been aware of what was going on, immediately accused us of being slanderers.

On May 9, 2014, the Provolo victims of Italy sent the Pope Francis a video message (knowing his preference for videos) on May 9, 2014. The eight deaf mutes pleaded for justice and asked the Pope for safety measure for the protection of children. Still no action by the Pope Francis while Fr. Corradi was teaching deaf and mute children in Argentina.

Since the Congregation for the Defense of the Faith had determined in 2012 (during Benedict’s papacy) that Corradi had sexually abused deaf and mute children in Italy, the Vatican was on notice that this priest had relocated to an Argentine school for deaf and mute children. Hasn’t the Vatican learned that predators relocate and pick up where they left off, by abusing children? Wasn’t the Vatican concerned that disabled Argentine children were at high risk with Fr. Corradi? How many Agentine children were abused because of the Vatican inaction and silence?

Finally, after ongoing publicity and personal pleas, in 2015 Provolo Victims’ Association met with Francis and personally asked him for an independent investigation of the clerical abuse of deaf and mute children. They waited and waited for a response from the loquacious pontiff to their urgent request for an independent investigation. Nothing, but silence.

Finally, after repeated requests to the Vatican press office. An answer came dated February 2016 in which the Vatican press office stated that the Pope forwarded the victims’ request to the Italian Bishop’s Conference, saying it was up to the Italian Bishop’s Conference to investigate the allegations. What happened to the much touted Papal Commission on the Protection of Minors? After a massive clerical sex abuse scandal involving the most vulnerable children on two continents, the Vatican passively and callously pitches the problem to the Italian Bishop’s Conference?

That, folks, is nothing more than a dodge, a pontifical punt into oblivion from this Pope who incessantly prattles on about zero tolerance for clergy sex abuse and poses as the champion of human trafficking victims, while his own Argentine disabled children were allegedly sexually abused by his indifference and inaction. Some mercy!

Yet, Swift Papal Action for Ecclesial Rivals

Contrast Francis’ inaction over the rape of innocent children, with his recent sudden action to appoint an independent commission to investigate the Knights of Malta, whose Cardinal Patronus happens to be Francis’ arch rival, Cardinal Raymond Burke. Within a week of learning that the Grand Chancellor of the Knights of Malta was suspended for continuing to distribute condoms, Francis quickly assembled a high powered commission to investigate that suspension, and presumably Burke, and to report back promptly to the Pope.

When Francis wants to wield political and ecclesial power, he does so with dispatch and authority. Papal politics, not child sexual abuse victims, garner his speedy attention.   If Pope Francis has an opportunity to take a political shot at his clerical political rivals, he seemingly moves with all deliberate speed. Yet when mute and deaf child victims of clergy abuse beg for an independent investigation, Francis drags his feet, slow walking his answer, and does nothing for years, causing more children to be raped and sexually abused.

Police Arrest Predator Priest Ignored by Francis

In late November 2016, Argentine Police arrested 82-year old priest Rev. Nicola Corradi, 55-year-old priest Horacio Corbacho, and three other men. They are accused of sexual and physical child abuse at the Antonio Provolo Institute in northwestern Mendoza province.One of the priests Nicolás Corradi, who had been given a previous conviction for child abuse in Italy before being transferred to Argentina, gave orders that none of the children’s relatives were allowed to enter the school. Parents now believe this was part of the cover up.When the police raided the school in Argentina’s Mendoza province and they found pornography and about $34,000 in Rev. Corradi’s room.

Pope Francis urged to open files on Argentina’s pedophile priests

https://www.ctvnews.ca/world/pope-francis-urged-to-open-files-on-argentina-s-pedophile-priests-1.1202749

BUENOS AIRES, Argentina — Activists against abuse by Roman Catholic clergy urged Pope Francis on Tuesday to apologize for what they called the Argentine church’s protection of two priests who were eventually convicted of sexually assaulting children.

The U.S.-based Bishop Accountability group cited the case of Father Julio Cesar Grassi, who ran the “Happy Children” foundation and was convicted of pedophilia in 2008, and Father Napoleon Sasso, convicted in 2007 of abusing girls at a soup kitchen in suburban Buenos Aires.

The Buenos Aires archbishop’s office didn’t immediately respond Tuesday.

The pope’s authorized biographer, Sergio Rubin, told The Associated Press before Jorge Mario Bergoglio was elected pope last week that he had drawn an increasingly tough line on clergy abuse. Bergoglio insisted that accused priests face trial, and imposed a thorough screening process in an attempt to weed out future problems, Rubin said.

In the 2012 book “On Heaven and Earth,” in which Bergoglio and Rabbi Abraham Skorka engage in a religious dialogue, the future pope said the church should not ignore the sexual abuse of minors by priests.

“When that happens, we must never turn a blind eye. You cannot be in a position of power and destroy the life of another person,” he said, adding that priests guilty of such offences should be stripped of their right to perform priestly duties.

Bergoglio said the church shouldn’t try to keep such cases quiet. “I do not believe in taking positions that uphold a certain corporative spirit in order to avoid damaging the image of the institution,” he said.

Nobody has presented evidence that Bergoglio was directly involved covering up sex abuse. But a lawyer for the victims, Ernesto Moreau, told the AP that as the top authority for the Argentine church, Bergoglio was ultimately responsible for the treatment of the victims, who have yet to get medical treatment or compensation.

“Bergoglio has been the strongest man in the Argentine church since the beginning of this century,” Moreau said, and yet “the leadership of the church has never done anything to remove these people from these places, and neither has it done anything to relieve the pain of the victims.”

At the Vatican, Francis will be ultimately responsible for the work of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, which last year told the world’s bishops conferences to come up with comprehensive guidelines to deal with sexual abusive clergy. It gave the bishops a year to draft guidelines to better screen priests, root out potential abusers, educate laity about the problem, and require bishops report suspected abuse to civil authorities where civil reporting laws exist.

As it turns out, Bergoglio has several examples in Argentina to draw from.

Grassi was well known in Buenos Aires for persuading celebrities to donate to his “Happy Children” foundation, which ran orphanages and social outreach programs. Before he was convicted, Grassi praised Bergoglio for “never abandoning him.” Now he’s free on appeal, thanks in part to a church filing on his behalf.

Sasso, meanwhile, enjoys prison furloughs after serving half of a 17-year sentence for abusing five girls.

Sasso was assigned to the soup kitchen, at a chapel where his bedroom shared the only bathroom, after living in a home for wayward priests where he had been sent after accusations of pedophilia were raised against him in remote San Juan province.

“The bathroom had two doors. The girls would come in through the outside door, and the priest would bring them into his bedroom through the other, sexually abusing the girls,” Moreau said. “These were really poor people, who were there for free meals while their parents worked. They found an enormous amount of child pornography in his computer, semen, condoms.” It was a medical priest and a nun who discovered that Sasso abused 25 girls aged 3 to 16, but when they informed church officials, they were told to “remain patient,” and nothing was done, Moreau said.

Eventually, they sought higher authorities and the case was taken up by the criminal courts, but the mid-level officials who covered it up still have their positions, while the priest and nun were forced to work elsewhere, the lawyer said.

Bergoglio ran Argentina’s bishops conference, which must approve inter-diocese priest transfers, at the time when Sasso was assigned to the soup kitchen. He also ran the church when Sasso later became a fugitive and hid out for a year inside church property in the same diocese where the abuse occurred, Moreau said.

Bishop Accountability co-director Anne Doyle said that shows Bergoglio was behind the curve in the Catholic Church’s global struggle to deal with sex abuse by its priests, which erupted in 2002 after thousands of cases became public in the United States and around the world.

“We would be alarmed if the Archbishop Bergoglio had done this in the ’60s or ’70s. That would be sad and disturbing. But the fact that he did this just five years ago, when other bishops in other countries were meeting victims and implementing tough reporting laws, it puts him behind some of his American counterparts, that’s for sure,” Doyle told the AP.

The group said that to send a message of zero tolerance, Francis should tell the Buenos Aires archdiocese to release the complete files on the Grassi and Sasso cases, publicly identify priests who are “credibly accused” and endorse mandatory reporting by church officials to law enforcement of suspected abuse. The pope also should admit that he was wrong to defend abusive priests, apologize to the victims of Grassi and Sasso, and offer to meet with the victims, the group said.

Doyle noted that The Washington Post reported on these cases just as Francis was being installed as pope in a Vatican ceremony seen around the world Tuesday.

“The victims of these two priests are the very children of God about whom he was speaking in his homily today,” she said. “They are the most vulnerable of the poor. We hope that Francis will seize this as a priority and reach out to the victims and rectify his terrible insensitivity to them when he was archbishop.”

In the United States, confidential files on hundreds of pedophile priests have been released either through civil litigation, settlements or court order. The contents have revealed how top church officials worked behind the scenes to control the sex abuse scandal and keep it from authorities as well as parishioners.

Similar broad releases of confidential priest files haven’t happened in Latin America, where victims are less likely to come forward and even less likely to file a civil claim.

Ramon Luzarraga, an expert on the Catholic Church in Latin America, said justice has come more slowly in Argentina in part because its society has until recently avoided public discussions of sexual humiliation, which was used as a tactic in the “dirty war” waged against leftists by the 1976-83 military dictatorship.

Also, he said, “Argentina’s democracy is still comparatively young and, compared to the United States, people are not as acclimated to being outspoken in the face of injustice.”

That leaves clergy abuse victims in the U.S. and their supporters to hold the pope to account on questions of priest abuse everywhere, said Luzarraga, who teaches theology at the University of Dayton in Ohio.

The hundreds of confidential priest personnel files that have been made public in the U.S. have bolstered critics because they can see with their own eyes how the American church dealt with abusive priests, he added.

“That is a big difference. Information is power.”

POPE FRANCIS COVERED UP AND PROTECTED DISGUSTING SCUMBAG PRIESTS WHO WERE RAPING DEAF/MUTE CHILDREN AT THE ANTONIO PROVOLO INSTITUTES AND SHOULD BE PUT TO DEATH FOR IT

THE FIRST TORTURE THIS HEAD PEDOPHILE PIMP POPE FRANCIS SHOULD BE HAVING A RED HOT, COAL FILLED POPES PEAR SHOVED UP HIS ASS.

The Pear of Anguish was used during the Middle Ages as a way to torture women who conducted a miscarriage, liars, blasphemers and homosexuals.

A pear-shaped instrument was inserted into one of the victim’s orifices: the vagina for women, the anus for homosexuals and the mouth for liars and blasphemers.

The instrument consisted of four leaves that slowly separated from each other as the torturer turned the screw at the top. It was the torturer’s decision to simply tear the skin or expand the “pear” to its maximum and mutilate the victim.

The Pear of Anguish was usually very adorned to differentiate between the anal, vaginal and oral pears. They also varied in size accordingly.

This torture very rarely provoked death, but was often followed by other torture methods.

THEN POPE FRANCIS’ DEATH PENALTY PUNISHMENT NEXT GETS PUNISHED WITH THE RAT TORTURE.

A cheap and effective way to torture someone was with the use of rats. There were many variants, but the most common was to force a rat through a victim’s body (usually the intestines) as a way to escape. This was done as follows:

The victim was completely restrained and tied to the ground or any horizontal surface. A rat was then placed on his stomach covered by a metallic container. As the container was gradually heated, the rat began to look for a way out – through the victim’s body.

Digging a hole usually took a few hours of agonizing pain for the victim. This almost invariantly resulted in death.

THEN? WE PLACE THIS JUDAS TO CHILDREN IN THE JUDAS CHAIR

Also known as the Judas Chair, the Chair of Torture was a terrible device of the Middle Ages. It was used until the late 1800’s in Europe.

There are many variants of the chair. They all have one thing in common: spikes cover the back, arm-rests, seat, leg-rests and foot-rests. The number of spikes in one of these chairs ranges from 500 to 1,500.

To avoid movement, the victim’s wrists were tied to the chair or, in one version, two bars pushed the arms against arm-rests for the spikes to penetrate the flesh even further. In some versions, there were holes under the chair’s bottom where the torturer placed coal to cause severe burns while the victim still remained conscious.

This instrument’s strength lies primarily in the psychological fear caused on the victims. It was a common practice to extract a confession by forcing the victim to watch someone else be tortured with this instrument.

The time of death greatly varied ranging from a few hours to a day or more. No spike penetrated any vital organ and the wound was closed by the spike itself which delayed blood loss greatly.

And last, but certainly not least? Pope Francis should be drawn and quartered, his head cut off and put on a pike in front of the Vatican with the warning “This is what we will now do to Roman Catholic scum leaders who cover up and protect disgusting, demonic pedophile priests who rape children

Usually, this form of execution was used on prisoners convicted of treason. It was reserved to the most hated of criminals, as it was easily the most sadistic and barbaric form of execution ever invented.

A chronicler by the name of William Harrison portrayed the execution of hanging, drawing, and quartering as:
“The greatest and most grievous punishment used in England for such as offend against the State is drawing from the prison to the place of execution upon an hurdle or sled, where they are hanged till they be half dead, and then taken down, and quartered alive; after that, their members and bowels are cut from their bodies, and thrown into a fire, provided near hand and within their own sight, even for the same purpose.”