Cardinal Bergoglio Stonewalled Sex Abuse Victim in Argentina

BUENOS AIRES, Argentina (ChurchMilitant.com) - Pope Francis, currently sporting a zero-tolerance policy in Rome, was known more for his zero-transparency policy concerning clerical sex abuse as the archbishop of Buenos Aires, Argentina.

In 1989, Sebastián Cuattromo, a student at a Catholic school in Buenos Aires, was the victim of homosexual predation by a teacher at the school, Br. Fernando Enrique Picciochi, S.M. In 2002, when Cuattromo sought help in seeking justice from the diocese then headed by Cdl. Jorge Bergoglio, his vicar, Fr. Mario Poli, stonewalled Cuattromo for seven years.

One of the first acts that Bergoglio would do as Pope Francis was to make Poli the archbishop of Buenos Aires.

Brother Picciochi, a teacher at the Marianista de Caballito School in the archdiocese of Buenos Aires, was convicted in 2012 for homosexual predation of multiple students from the school. In 1991, the Marianist superior, Luis Casalá, admitted that he was informed of Picciochi's homosexual abuse of Cuattromo two years prior and termed it "an act of aggression."

Following revelations of Cuattromo's abuse, Picciochi was sent for evaluation and deemed "normal, not homosexual." He was then transferred to a different diocese. In 2000, Picciochi was charged with "repeated corruption of minors" involving sexual abuse but fled to the United States. When Cuattromo sought help seeking justice in 2002 from the archdiocese, Cdl. Bergoglio's personal secretary, Fr. Martin Garcia Aguirre, and his vicar, Fr. Mario Poli, offered no assistance to Cuattromo whatsoever.

Seven years later, Picciochi was arrested in the United States and extradited to Argentina in 2010. In a book published that same year titled On Heaven and Earth, Cdl. Bergoglio claimed he never dealt with a single case of clerical sex abuse.

Speaking of clerical abuse of minors, Bergoglio said, "Now, when this happens, you can never turn a blind eye. You cannot be in a position of power and destroy the life of another person. In my diocese, it never happened to me.”

Tweet The cardinal went on to say, "A bishop called me once by phone to ask me what to do in a situation like this and I told him to take away the priest's faculties, not permit him to exercise his priestly ministry again and to initiate a canonical trial in the tribunal that corresponds to that diocese."

Picciochi was a member of a religious order but, nonetheless, was convicted in 2012 of molesting multiple students at the Catholic school in Bergoglio's diocese.

Father Poli, who turned a blind eye and deaf ear to Cuattromo, the 13-year-old victim of Picciochi's homosexual predation, was later elevated to the level of archbishop of Buenos Aires in March 2013 by Bergoglio when he became Pope that same month.

The entire rest of the world outside the Catholic Church "has been riddled with debauchery and scandal" for all those 2,000 years also, as well as the group consisting of all the people who lived during the many years before Christ created His Church, ever since the first sin was committed.

Did He wash His hands of all that mess as well?

Nice attempt at deflecting, but not everyone is as hypocritical about it as the catholic church. Isn't the catholic church the one and true church? Shouldn't they be setting the example? The only example they've been setting is a very bad one. And there doesn't seem to be any attempt to correct the error of their ways. In fact, the church is doubling down and hoping the media focus on it goes away. Maybe Frankie should come out and declare the world's worst problem today is too much plastic in the oceans, so people forget about the real problems facing the church.

If it was revealed today that Billy Graham was a predator pedophile for the majority of his life I guarantee you Catholics would not have a field day blasting him to Kingdom Come and I guarantee you Protestants wouldn’t say nary a word. They would be ashamed it but he would not be ridiculed.

The sad truth of the matter is all faith organizations have the same problems and all organizations of any type have homosexuals taking advantage of others. The Catholic Church is singled out because of the sheer size of the Church. And it can be sued.. Other faiths can’t be sued because there’s no organization to sue. The vast majority of Catholic priest are not homosexual and not sexual predators. The liberal media hates the church and that’s why it stays in the news all the time. The public school system has a much worse record of sexual abuse by teachers than any church but you never hear about it. They constantly shuffle teachers around because the unions make it so hard to fire them. The Catholic Church is the only institution in the world where a man or woman that’s 70 years old can walk into a police station and say a priest in 1955 sexually abused them and the 90 year old priest whose never had the hint of scandal around him is thrown in jail and a few years later the church pays out a million dollars to the accuser. In many cases the priest is dead and can’t defend himself but he’s automatically pronounced guilty by the media.
All other institutions have a statute of limitations that prevent this, but in the Catholic Church there is none. Yes you have priest like the sodomite predator McCarrick and be should die in prison. But most Catholic priests are good guys that are in tbe business of trying to save souls, not sexually molest others.

"Nice attempt at deflecting, but not everyone is as hypocritical about it as the catholic church. Isn't the catholic church the one and true church? Shouldn't they be setting the example? The only example they've been setting is a very bad one. And there doesn't seem to be any attempt to correct the error of their ways."

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What a bunch of nonsensical, digital doo-doo. I wasn't deflecting anything. By singling out the Catholic Church in your post #7, you were, in effect, dividing the world into the Catholic Church (one group of people), and those outside the Catholic Church (a second group of people). Everybody who ever lived is in one of those two groups of people.

In that same post, you said that the Catholic Church has been riddled with debauchery and scandal, and that you guess that Jesus washed His hands of that mess (those sins of debauchery and scandal inside the Church). In my reply post #19, I pointed out the fact that the other group of people (all those outside the Catholic Church), also have been "riddled with debauchery and scandal", and asked you the simple question, did Jesus wash His hands of their mess as well? Since you didn't choose to answer my simple question, I'll answer if for you. Jesus did not wash His hands of the sinful mess in anybody's life -- not the people inside the Church, and not the people outside the Church. (That was Pilate who washed his hands. Jesus washed the dirty sinners' feet.)

I included that picture of the hands of Jesus to remind you that Jesus gave His life for everybody, freely offering His salvation to every single person, inside the Church and outside the Church. To wash one's hands of something means to refuse to have anything more to do with someone or something, or to take responsibility for them. To say He washed His hands of the Church He founded (which is made up of many people), is a bold-faced, malicious, disgusting, disgraceful falsehood. Jesus freely offers His salvation to Catholics and to non-Catholics. To say otherwise, is, simply, a lie, and denigrates the infinite sacrifice of our Lord, Jesus Christ. (Jesus also said He is the Truth, and that Satan is the father of lies. Choose you this day whom ye will serve...)

You seem to think that the Church consists of the pope, and a few bad bishops, and far too many (but still a very small minority) of priests who did horrible things [NOTE - the vast majority of priests and bishops have never been charged with, or accused of, doing anything wrong]. That narrow view of the Church (where it consists only of the pope / a handful of enabling and coverup bishops / and some number of very bad priests) is also false. The Church is the body of Christ, and consists of the entire Church, all of whom are sinners (as are all those people outside the Church). When you say "The only example they've been setting is a very bad one. And there doesn't seem to be any attempt to correct the error of their ways.", both of those statements are also untrue. Some in the Church are setting a bad example, and some are setting a good example. And there many examples of individuals in the Church who ARE trying their very best to correct the problems in the Church.

How about a little wager -- if I can't find any examples of people inside the Church who are trying to correct those evil problems (like you claim), I'll give you $1,000, but for every example I can find of someone within the Church (both members of the hierarchy, and members of the laity) who are doing various things to work very hard with the tools at their disposal to clean up that stinking mess inside the Church, you'll give me $1,000. (Some friendly advice -- don't take that bet. You will lose a lot of money. That was another couple falsehoods.)

(I have to sign off now -- I have to get up early, and "labor", but I'll check back as soon as I can, to see if you took me up on that friendly wager. I've copied this post to two FReepers who I consider to be faithful, knowledgeable Catholics, so that they can correct me if I stated any inaccuracies, or made any mistakes in my post, and to witness my wager offer. Hope your Labor Day was great!)

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