ARGENTINA
WHBF
Posted: Mar 19, 2013
By MICHAEL WARREN
Associated Press
BUENOS AIRES, Argentina (AP) – A U.S. group that tracks clergy abuse called on Pope Francis to apologize Tuesday for what it called the Argentine church’s protection of two priests who were eventually convicted of abusing children.
The Bishop Accountability group cites 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. Sasso had been moved to the kitchen by church authorities after he got into trouble for pedophilia in remote San Juan province.
Jorge Bergoglio, who became Argentina’s cardinal in 2001, wasn’t directly involved in any sex abuse scandals or coverups, but he failed to remove priests accused of sexually abusing their faithful, and refused to meet with the victims, their attorney Ernesto Moreau told The Associated Press.
“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.”
Now Grassi is free on appeal, thanks in part to the church’s report. Before he was convicted, he thanked Bergoglio for “never abandoning him.”
Bishop Accountability co-director Anne Doyle says this shows Bergoglio was behind the curve in the Catholic church’s global struggle to deal with sex abuse by its priests, which began in 2002 after thousands of cases became public in the United States and around the world.
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