Zanchetta, the gay porn bishop, on "retreat" with Pope



I can't really believe this is even a real thing but perhaps someone can explain how Pope Francis being on retreat with Bishop Zanchetta, his friend, ally & now under investigation for alleged sexual misconduct & having gay porn images on his phone is not a scandal &/or extremely toxic for the Pontiff & the faith?
  The Catholic Herald has learned that a bishop currently under investigation for sexual misconduct and financial mismanagement, including claims he had naked selfies and gay pornography on his phone, is on retreat with Pope Francis and other senior members of the Roman Curia.

The bishop is Gustavo Zanchetta, emeritus of Orán, Argentina, and currently Assessor to the Administration of the Patrimony of the Apostolic See (APSA) who I first reported on here.

Zanchetta was an associate of Francis before he was elected Pope in 2013: he was executive undersecretary of the Argentine episcopal conference which was headed by none other than Jorge Bergoglio (Pope Francis) himself. 

Zanchetta was so close to the Pope that he was one of the very first Argentines whom Francis promoted to bishop, on his own initiative, bypassing all canonical procedure, on July 23, 2013, at the head of the diocese of Orán, in the north of the country.

On July 29, 2017, Zanchetta suddenly disappeared, without any farewell Mass and without saying goodbye to his priests and faithful. He only made it known, from an unspecified location, that he had health problems that needed urgent care elsewhere and that he had just returned to Rome, where he had placed his mandate back in the hands of Pope Francis. Who very promptly, on August 1, accepted his resignation.

Zanchetta was for a brief time the guest of the bishop of the diocese of Corrientes, 500 miles to the south, one Andrés Stanovnik, the same bishop who had ordained him. He then reappeared in Spain, in Madrid, apparently in good health.

Curiously, the capital of Spain is the destination where Pope Francis had, two years before in 2015, sent the Chilean bishop Juan de la Cruz Barros Madrid - before promoting him as bishop of Osorno against the opinion of the higher-ups of the Chilean Church and of the nunciature - for a month of spiritual exercises preached by the famous Spanish Jesuit Germán Arana, one of the pope’s most influential advisors in many episcopal appointments, and in this case a tenacious defender of the innocence of Baros, who had already been hit with very weighty accusations of sexual abuse.

The fact is that Zanchetta’s trip to Madrid was also the prelude to his promotion by the Pope, who on December 19, 2017 called him to the Vatican to do nothing less than manage the Administration of the Patrimony of the Apostolic See, APSA, in a new and tailor-made role of “assessor.”

The Catholic Herald reports:

When news reports of the investigation into Bishop Zanchetta’s conduct emerged in early January, the Press Office of the Holy See issued a statement saying Zanchetta had resigned his see because he could not govern the clergy, and that the accusations of sexual misconduct were not lodged until the Fall of 2018. “At the time of his resignation [in 2017],” Press Office Director Alessandro Gisotti said in the statement, “there had been accusations of authoritarianism against [Zanchetta], but there had been no accusation of sexual abuse against him.”

Later, it emerged that Orán’s former Vicar General, Fr Juan José Manzano, sent evidence of Bishop Zanchetta’s behaviour to the Vatican in 2015 and 2017.

Fr Manzano told the Associated Press, “In 2015, we just sent a ‘digital support’ with selfie photos of the previous bishop [Zanchetta] in obscene or out of place behavior that seemed inappropriate and dangerous.” Fr Manzano explained, “It was an alarm that we made to the Holy See via some friendly bishops.”

“The nunciature didn’t intervene directly,” Fr Manzano told the AP, but the Holy Father summoned Zanchetta and he justified himself saying that his cellphone had been hacked, and that there were people who were out to damage the image of the Pope.”

Argentina’s El Tribuno de Salta newspaper later published documents showing the first complaint — in 2015 — reported that Zanchetta had on his cell phone naked images of himself masturbating, and gay porn involving young people engaged in homosexual sexual activity.

The documents published by El Tribuno also contain statements from the rector of Oran’s seminary, to the effect that he was so concerned over Bishop Zanchetta’s behaviour that he informed the nunciature in 2016 that his first-year students — who had classes in the bishop’s residence — required “urgent measures” for their protection.

That 2016 complaint lists “strange behaviours” including, “watching [seminarians] at night, walking through their rooms late at night with a flashlight, or asking for massages, or going into their rooms and sitting on their beds, or encouraging them to drink alcoholic beverages, or [showing] certain preferences for some more handsome (Sp. Agraciados, literally “graceful”) [seminarians].”


This news breaks as notorious LGBT activists Martin Pendergast (front row, far left) and Julian Filochowski (second row, far left) who have lived together for decades and are original founding members of the heterodox Soho Masses Pastoral Council return from meeting Pope Francis.

On Ash Wednesday, 6 March, the 16 pilgrims, including parents and family members alongside LGBT Catholics with Pilgrimage Chaplain, Fr. David Stewart SJ, had privileged seats at the morning Papal Audience in St. Peter's Square. At the end of the General Audience the group was invited to meet Pope Francis. Each pilgrim received a gift of a rosary from Pope Francis who shook hands with the group's members reports The Tablet.

Of course, Cardinal Nichols is a BIG supporter of this group and, in a message to the pilgrims on 3 March, the Cardinal said to be in Rome was a “wonderful opportunity” to enjoy the beautiful environment, the history and “most especially, to deepen your faith” according to The Tablet.

The Cardinal never misses an opportunity to support LGBTQI+ "Catholics" but you will never hear him supporting orthodoxy and nothing seems to upset him as much as the Traditional Mass. This behaviour - hatred for the usus antiquior, support for erroneous and worldly anthropology in contradiction to Church teaching is becoming a kind of hall mark for bad clergy, and is usually coupled with a failure to support Pro Life issues.

If you want to understand the background to Cardinal Nichols relationship with LGBT Westminster Catholics have a look at the posts at http://www.protectthepope.com which was suppressed due to pressure from Westminster bishops http://protectthepope.com/?cat=11


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