Pope Francis named in 5 priest child abuse cases, called callous

Examiner

Yesterday Pope Francis was named in five Catholic priest child abuse cases, plus had been labeled as callous toward hundreds of thousands of Catholic priest abuse victims.

“Newly disclosed records show that Pope Francis is just like the overwhelming majority of his complicit colleagues. That’s painful to say, but crucial to understand and accept if kids are to be safer in this global monarchy which Francis heads” said Barbara Dorris, Outreach Director for the 15,000-member SNAP, a US Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests.  

http://www.snapnetwork.org/rome_crucial_records_posted_on_pope_s_abuse_r…

The allegations came after Pope Francis’ international court summons to answer charges of trafficking children from Catholic orphanages during Argentina’s Dirty War, a Feb. 2014 UN report that criticized Pope Francis for covering up evidence and protecting priests instead of children in the Catholic Priest sex abuse scandal that has affected hundreds of thousands of victims and a 5 Feb. 2014 NBC News special that claimed Pope Francis had yet to address Vatican policies that allowed Catholic priests to rape children.http://www.nbcnews.com/news/world/u-n-report-vatican-policies-allowed-pr…

Pope Francis Jorge Mario Bergoglio was archbishop of Buenos Aires from 1998 to 2013 and president of the Argentine bishops’ conference from 2005 to 2011. During that period Pope Francis stayed silent about the clergy child sex abuse crisis in Argentina.

Pope Francis continued to honor an 1800s agreement “to protect the Catholic Church” called Crimen Sollicitationas. The document has prevented Catholics from releasing information against Catholic priests involved in sex abuse under threat of excommunication or even jail time. http://youtu.be/Es-K8iKvVmE

Pope Francis was named in five priest child abuse cases:

• Fr. Julio César Grassi – Grassi was convicted in 2009 of molesting a boy who had lived in a home for street children that Grassi founded. After Grassi’s conviction, the now-Pope Francis commissioned a secret study to persuade Supreme Court judges of Grassi’s innocence. Pope Francis’ intervention was believed to be at least part of the reason that Grassi remained free for more than four years following his conviction.

• Fr. Rubén Pardo – In 2003, a priest with AIDS who had admitted to his bishop that he had sexually assaulted a boy, was discovered to be hiding from law enforcement in a vicarage in the archdiocese of Buenos Aires, then headed by the now-Pope Francis. Pardo also was reportedly hearing children’s confessions and teaching in a nearby school. It was unlikely that Pardo lived and ministered in Buenos Aires without Pope Francis’ approval.

• Brother Fernando Enrique Picciochi, S.M. – After a victim discovered that his abuser had fled Argentina to the US, eluding law enforcement, the victim sought the now-Pope Francis’ help in getting released from the confidentiality order Crimen Sollicitationas imposed by the cleric’s religious order. He conveyed his request in meetings with Pope Francis’ private secretary at the time and with the auxiliary bishop, the current archbishop Mario Poli. The archdiocese would not help.

• Fr. Mario Napoleon Sasso – In 2001, following a diagnosis as a pedophile at a church-run treatment center, Sasso was made pastor of a very poor parish with a community soup kitchen in the Zárate-Campana diocese. In 2002-2003, he sexually assaulted at least five little girls in his bedroom off the soup kitchen. In 2006, with Sasso in jail but not yet convicted, the parents of the little girls reportedly sought the now-Pope Francis’ help. Pope Francis was then president of the Argentine bishops’ conference. The soup kitchen was just 25 miles from the Buenos Aires archdiocese. Pope Francis refused to meet with them.

• Rev. Carlos Maria Gauna – Gauna was an archdiocesan priest under the now-Pope Francis’ direct supervision. In 2001, two girls at a school filed a criminal complaint saying Gauna had touched them inappropriately. Pope Francis reportedly was going to look into it. Gauna still works in the Buenos Aires archdiocese. Notably, he’s now a deacon and a hospital chaplain – possible indicators that Pope Francis considered the allegations credible but decided to demote him rather than remove him from ministry.

The new documents uncovered by SNAP revealed how clergy sex crimes were dealt with in Argentina when Pope Francis was the highesst ranking Catholic official there. During that time Pope Francs released no documents, no names of accused priests, no tallies of accused priests, no policy for handling abuse and issued no apology to victims. http://www.bishop-accountability.org/Argentina/#five_cases

Pope Francis’, Pope Benedict’s and Queen Elizabeth’s use of a Vatican agreement called Crimen Sollicitationas prevented release of information to legal authorities for prosecution of crimes against an estimated millions of priest child abuse victims. A Vatican source claimed to ITCCS’ Kevin Annett that Queen Elizabeth signed the document with Pope Benedict on 16 Sept. 2010 at Holyrood Castle in Edinburgh

Pope Francis was charged with trafficking children from Catholic orphanages during Argentina’s 1970s Dirty War. A former member of the Junta’s military who took extensive notes of Pope Francis’ meetings with the Junta military has agreed to come out of hiding in Spain to testify. The Junta was credited with murdering over 50,000 political protestors – some of them parents of the children. The Brussels international court proceedings begin 31 March 2014.

http://www.examiner.com/article/pope-francis-named-5-priest-child-abuse-cases-called-callous