BUENOS AIRES (ARGENTINA)
Infobae
The story of the priest accused of sexual abuse and money laundering of drug trafficking who will go to oral trial
June 27, 2020
By Andrés Klipphan
https://www.infobae.com/sociedad/2020/06/27/la-historia-del-sacerdote-acusado-de-abuso-sexual-y-lavado-de-dinero-del-narcotrafico-que-ira-a-juicio-oral/
[Google translation: Agustín Rosa Torino allegedly abused two seminarians and a nun. The Vatican opened a canonical investigation and the complaints reach 30. Pope Francis ordered the closure of the Religious Institute that in 1986 the priest had founded in Salta
One of the many judicial cases for abuses committed in the Argentine Church will add a new chapter. In Salta, the priest Agustín Rosa Torino will be tried for the alleged crimes of grossly outrageous sexual abuse to the detriment of two victims and simple sexual abuse against a third victim.The elevation to trial was filed in Chamber IV of the Salteño Trial Court. Now Judge Maximiliano Troyano will define the starting date of the oral and public trial.
The transit of the file was not easy. Along the way, the complaints and the prosecution encountered obstacles such as abuse of power, requests for annulments, requests for dismissal, and even a counter-complaint against one of the nuns who denounced the priest and who has already been dismissed.
It was because a cousin of another priest, a friend of the questioned religious, denounced the nun – now a former religious – Valeria Zarza, the woman abused by Agustín Rosa Torino.
The intention to discredit one of the three victims – the other two are men – failed. That’s how rare the judicial process was until reaching the oral trial.
Scandal at the Vatican
The priest who faces earthly justice is not just any priest. He knew how to influence the politicians and the local bishopric. Also in the Vatican.
In 1986, and with the approval of the then Pope John Paul II , Father Rosa Torino founded, in the province of Salta, the religious institute of diocesan law Brothers Disciples of Jesus of Saint John the Baptist.
The institute also has offices in Mexico, Chile and Spain and is made up of priests, permanent deacons and consecrated non-clergy who issue perpetual public vows and exclusively practice contemplative, monastic or hermitic life.
Thirty-three years later, on June 18, 2019, and by order of another pope, in this case of Francis , the Congregation for Institutes of Consecrated Life and Societies of Apostolic Life decreed the suppression of the Institute led by the alleged abusive priest.]
Agustín Rosa Torino habría abusado de dos seminaristas y una monja. El Vaticano abrió una investigación canónica y las denuncias llegan a 30. El papa Francisco ordenó cerrar el Instituto Religioso que en 1986 el cura habían fundado en Salta
Uno de los tantos casos judiciales por abusos cometidos en la Iglesia argentina sumará un nuevo capítulo. En Salta será juzgado el sacerdote Agustín Rosa Torino por los presuntos delitos de abuso sexual gravemente ultrajante en perjuicio de dos víctimas y de abuso sexual simple contra una tercera víctima. La elevación a juicio quedó radicada en la Sala IV del Tribunal de Juicio salteño. Ahora el juez Maximiliano Troyano definirá la fecha de inicio del juicio oral y público.
El tránsito del expediente no fue sencillo. En el camino, las querellas y la fiscalía se encontraron con obstáculos como abuso de poder, solicitudes de nulidades, pedidos de sobreseimiento, y hasta una contradenuncia contra una de las monjas que denuncio al cura y que ya fue sobreseída.
Fue porque una prima de otro sacerdote, amigo del cuestionado religioso, denunció como abusadora a la monja -ahora ex religiosa- Valeria Zarza, la mujer ultrajada por Agustín Rosa Torino.
La intención de desacreditar a una de las tres víctimas -las otras dos son hombres- fracasó. Así de enrarecido fue el trámite judicial hasta llegar al juicio oral.
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