[Catholic Caucus] Maradiaga Denies Financial Allegations, But Questions Remain Unanswered

National Catholic Register ^ | December 23, 2017 | Edward Pentin

[ebb tide]

Cardinal Óscar Andrés Rodríguez Maradiaga, Archbishop of Tegucigalpa, Honduras, at a Vatican conference on Pope Saint John Paul II's encyclical "Centesimus Annus", April 15, 2016. (Daniel Ibáñez/CNA)

Sources tell the Register the most serious claims involve Bishop Juan José Pineda, an auxiliary bishop in the Honduran cardinal’s archdiocese, to whom the cardinal is very close.

One of Pope Francis’ chief advisers on Church reform has rejected allegations of financial corruption made in an Italian publication this week, but questions remain over diocesan accounting procedures, and his close ties with one of his bishops who is accused of misappropriating vast amounts of diocesan funds and illicit relationships.

Honduran Cardinal Oscar Andrés Rodriguez Maradiaga, a member of the Pope’s Council of Nine Cardinals, told CNA Dec. 22 he was a victim of “calumnies” which included allegations, repeated in the Italian magazine L’Espresso Dec. 21, that he had received $600,000 from the University of Tegucigalpa in 2015, as a sort of “salary” for being the chancellor of the University.

[livius]

Basically, I think Francis himself is corrupt up to his eyeballs, and it’s no surprise that his closest companions are likewise. Nor is it surprising that he keeps “reassigning” (also known as firing) people at the Vatican who get too close to finding out or revealing the truth. I think it’s time to reexamine the whole affair involving the Spanish priest Balda, who early on in the Francis years was actually jailed and held incommunicado in the Vatican for months over a very cloudy matter involving financial investigation documents.

I read that a lot of this money is thought to have been funneled to left wing causes (possibly including the Castro government, since Maradiaga worshipped Fidel). Maradiaga received that $600,000 a year - plus a $60,000 “bonus” - every year for 10 years. He has also been receiving a generous pension from the Honduran government for about the last 15 years.

That said, I think Francis is going to make all of this go away by simply stonewalling, and that when the time comes, Maradiaga will still be considered “papabile,” since I’m sure Francis wants to hand-pick his successor.

[ebb tide]

That said, I think Francis is going to make all of this go away by simply stonewalling, and that when the time comes, Maradiaga will still be considered “papabile,” since I’m sure Francis wants to hand-pick his successor.

I agree with you. From the article:

The Register has been told that Bishop Casaretto was shocked by the extent of the corruption he discovered, including accounts of sexual abuse perpetrated against priests and seminarians. The bishop sent the Pope a report on the archdiocese based on the testimonies of more than 50 witnesses, including diocesan staff members and priests, according to L’Espresso.

As well as the Pope, Cardinal Pietro Parolin, the Vatican Secretary of State, Cardinal Marc Ouellet, prefect of the Congregation for Bishops, and Archbishop Angelo Becciu, the third highest official in the Vatican’s Secretariat of State, were all informed.

Vatican and Honduran sources say on receiving the report, the Pope decided to take the matter into his own hands rather than have a commission or a more extensive apostolic visitation deal with it further, but so far the only action that has been taken has been to send Bishop Pineda to stay with Jesuits in Madrid on a short retreat.

The phrase, "Dictator Pope", comes to mind.