ARGENTINA
The Wall Street Journal
By SHANE ROMIG
BUENOS AIRES—An Argentine priest who was once defended by Pope Francis against sex-abuse allegations has been ordered to prison to complete a 15-year sentence for sexually abusing an adolescent boy at a youth center over a decade ago.
Rev. Julio Grassi, a well-known priest who ran a shelter for troubled youth, was ordered to jail by a Buenos Aires provincial court late Monday, days after the priest lost his appeal to the province’s high court. Father Grassi was convicted of aggravated sexual abuse in 2009, but had been allowed to stay in his house across the road from the center while he appealed the case.
Father Grassi said he would again appeal the case to the country’s Supreme Court. I don’t “have a trace of pedophilia,” he told judges before they ordered him taken to the Ituzaingó prison.
Vatican spokesman Federico Lombardi declined to comment.
The case is the most prominent abuse case in the pontiff’s native land. Father Grassi was a high-profile figure in Buenos Aires during the 1990s and 2000’s, running the Fundación Felices los Niños, or Happy Are The Children Foundation. He was frequently seen on television and rubbing elbow with celebrities, politicians and businessmen as he sought backing for the foundation.
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