ANATOMY OF A COVERUP:

Francis, Vatican Exposed

By Christopher A. Ferrara | Remnant Columnist

Introduction: the "Abuse of Minors" Ruse

The homosexual priest and bishop scandal has erupted anew, just as I predicted in an article for this journal seventeen years ago, concerning the useless "pedophile summit" in Rome, presided over by none other than ex-Cardinal McCarrick, the serial sexual abuser of seminarians and altar boys Pope Bergoglio was finally forced to discipline after having rehabilitated him in full knowledge of his past. The 2002 Roman junket for well-fed prelates was cunningly designed to avoid the issue of homosexual activity among the clergy and their "consenting adult" partners in sodomy.

With vipers like McCarrick running the show, the participants would never get anywhere near the third rail of rampant homosexuality in the post-Vatican II priesthood. The problem, we were told, was "abuse of minors" by pedophiles— an outright lie designed to conceal the widespread homosexual corruption of Catholic clergy. I attended the event as a reporter for The Remnant, confronting McCarrick personally at a press conference during its worthless proceedings. Herewith my question and McCarrick’s supremely deceptive and hypocritical answer, a carefully worded nod to the continuing ordination of homosexuals so long as they profess not to have been "active":

Ferrara: Nearly every single case has involved an adolescent

~ See Anatomy of Coverup/ Page 6

C. Ferrara/

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Anatomy of a Cover-up:

Francis, Vatican Exposed

and does not constitute a true case of pedophilia. So, we’re dealing with the acts of homosexual males who could not control their predilection.

To avoid what would be a perpetual bumper crop of this type of scandal, is the hierarchy in North America going to enforce the Vatican’s [1961] Instruction that homosexual males simply should not be ordained?

McCarrick: I think certainly every seminary in the country has a program that says, "anyone who is an active homosexual should never be admitted." I don’t know of any bishop in the country who would allow someone who had been actively involved in homosexuality to enter a seminary. I don’t think any bishop would allow anyone who was actively engaged in heterosexual [his emphasis] activity right before they went in to enter the seminary.

We believe in celibacy. It’s not the easiest road in today’s crazy world, but we believe in celibacy. We believe that if you practice celibacy with all your heart, with all your love, you can be free to serve God’s people, to serve God in a beautiful way. If someone gets into a seminary, and that question is not asked, that’s a terrible thing. But any seminary that I know, you say, "have you been acting celibately up until now?"

Knowing what we now know about McCarrick’s crimes, which forced even Bergoglio to remove him from the College of Cardinals when the media heat became too intense, consider the Washington Post’s glowing description of his role back then as the "leading spokesman … national leader… [and] most sensible voice" on "the sexual abuse crisis" in the Church, who "understands the depth of the problem" of "abuse of minors"—which he himself had committed!

If only it were a joke. One of the most cunning snakes in a brood of vipers—"the crafty McCarrick" I called him at the time—was put in charge of misdirecting the focus of the meeting to "abuse of minors" by "pedophiles" instead of sodomy between priests and young adult males. As for "consensual" sodomy between priests and their fellow priests or other "consenting adults," that would not even be mentioned, much less addressed. Protection was thus assured for the "gay Mafia" that now afflicts the Church as never before.

Bergoglio Continues the Coverup

Bergoglio has made his own novel contributions to Operation Homo Coverup. While coddling homosexual associates and refusing to identify homosexual infiltration of the hierarchy as the root problem (see below), he condemns instead an ill-defined "clericalism" as the cause of the "abuse of minors," thereby adding another layer of rhetorical misdirection to the phony "abuse of minors" narrative.

In the immediate aftermath of the devastating Grand Jury report lastAugust on widespread homosexual predation in the dioceses of Pennsylvania, much of it covered up by Cardinal Wuerl, Bergoglio issued a "Letter to the People of God" in which he decries "clericalism," not homosexual predation: "Clericalism, whether fostered by priests themselves or by lay persons, leads to an excision in the ecclesial body that supports and helps to perpetuate many of the evils that we are condemning today. To say ‘no’ to abuse is to say an emphatic ‘no’to all forms of clericalism." But what about "saying an emphatic no" to all forms of homosexual activity?

The subject finds no mention in the sanctimonious missive, which dares to imply collective guilt of the faithful for the depraved acts of priests and bishops: "I invite the entire holy faithful People of God to a penitential exercise of prayer and fasting [his emphasis], following the Lord’s command. This can awaken our conscience and arouse our solidarity and commitment to a culture of care that says ‘never again’ to every form of abuse." It is not our consciences which need awakening, nor is it we who are obliged to do penance for the homosexual molestation of boys by sexual perverts who should never have been ordained to the priesthood and should have been laicized the moment their perversion came to light.

Bergoglio cannot even bring himself to state clearly that the "abuse" in question involves the acts of homosexuals. Notice how the depraved acts of homosexual perpetrators are rhetorically elided into " every form of abuse" and " all forms of clericalism."

According to Bergoglio, the homosexual molestation of boys reflects, not sexual depravity as such, but rather "a peculiar way of understanding the Church’s authority, one common in many communities where sexual abuse and the abuse of power and conscience have occurred." A "peculiar way of understanding the Church’s authority" is certainly a peculiar way to describe homosexual priests and bishops molesting boys.

As Life Site News points out, Bergoglio does not even "recognize the role bishops have played in the scandal. In fact, the word ‘bishop’ does not appear once in the entire letter." The same grand jury report that prompted the "Letter to the People of God" revealed that Wuerl, whose name appears 206 times in the report, had been instrumental in covering up the sex crimes of homosexual priests when he was Bishop of Pittsburgh. As LifeSite News summarizes: "[W]hile he corresponded with the Vatican concerning the liability these priests created for the Church, he kept their actions concealed from parishioners."

Wuerl also approved payments to "a known molester of underage boys" who demanded money in exchange for information on his fellow priests engaged in the same activity.

Wuerl had previously returned the same priest to ministry after he threatened to sue over the allegations against him. The same priest, who was "murdered in Cuba where he lived with his boyfriend, was ultimately found to be involved in producing child pornography based on religious imagery on Church property, and to be part of a group of priests who ‘used whips, violence and sadism in raping their victims.’" Wuerl has also demonstrably lied about his longstanding knowledge of ex-Cardinal McCarrick’s homosexual predation. When his lies were exposed, he was forced to issue increasingly hedged, evidently lawyer-drafted, "clarifications," including that he "forgot" what he knew about McCarrick. He was finally forced to resign as Archbishop of Washington two months after the grand jury report was made public. But the "resignation" was another Bergoglian ruse. Bergoglio’s letter accepting Wuerl’s faux resignation last October portrays him as the heroic victim of the "father of lies" and declares that he had "sufficient elements to ‘justify’your actions" and had not covered up any crimes but merely "commit[ed] some mistakes."

Yet, said Bergoglio, "your nobility has led you not to choose this way of defense."

The same letter appoints the noble Wuerl as Apostolic Administrator of the diocese— meaning, preposterously enough, that he replaces himself ad interim, thereby retaining all the authority he only pretended to relinquish. Wuerl will no doubt also handpick his own successor.

A Fatal Blow to the "Humble" Reformer Narrative Then there is the Gustavo Zanchetta affair, which exploded only this month.

Even Philip Lawler has described it as "a fatal blow to the Pope’s reputation as a reformer." Zanchetta, a friend and "spiritual son" of Bergoglio, who was his confessor, held the title of executive undersecretary of the Argentine bishops’ conference under Bergoglio as its head. Bergoglio made him bishop of the remote Argentine diocese of Orán, one of his earliest episcopal appointments. Four years later Zanchetta suddenly resigned in the midst of allegations of financial impropriety and the sexual harassment of seminarians, only to receive from Bergoglio, in December 2017, a Vatican sinecure as "assessor" of the Administration of the Patrimony of the Apostolic See (APSA), which handles the Vatican’s real estate and investments.

Bergoglio created the position just for Zanchetta, ASPA never having had an "assessor" before, as John Allen notes. A most curious appointment for someone already in flight from allegations of financial misfeasance.

Lawler rightly wondered whether Bergoglio had ignored the sexual molestation charges against Zanchetta "just as, a few years earlier, he had dismissed charges against the Chilean Bishop Juan Barros; just as, according to Archbishop Vigano, he ignored complaints about then-Cardinal Theodore McCarrick." That concern was well-founded. On January 20, as this article was about to be posted, Associated Press published an exclusive report based on an interview with the former vicar general for the Diocese of Orán, Father Juan Jose Manzano, who is now a parish priest. Manzano revealed that Francis had summoned Zanchetta to the Vatican in 2015 and again in July of 2017, months before the appointment to ASPA, to answer to allegations that he "had taken naked selfies, exhibited ‘obscene’behavior and had been accused of misconduct with seminarians…" Manzano, who had forwarded Zenchetta’s nude selfies to the Vatican in 2015, told AP that he was only "one of the three current and former diocesan officials who made a second complaint to the Vatican’s embassy in Buenos Aires in May or June of 2017 ‘when the situation was much more serious, not just because there had been a question about sexual abuses, but because the diocese was increasingly heading into the abyss.’" According to Manzano, Zanchetta told Bergoglio when summoned to Rome in 2015 that "his cellphone had been hacked, and that there were people who were out to damage the image of the pope." As AP further reports, in May or June 2017, Manzano, the seminary rector and another priest "presented their concerns to the No. 2 in the Buenos Aires nunciature, Monsignor Vincenzo Turturro" after which "the pope summoned Zanchetta again in July 2017.

Returning home, Zanchetta announced his resignation in a July 29 statement saying

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Then-Cardinal Theodore McCarrick, key spokesman for bishops at the summit meeting with JPII on the sex abuse crisis unfolding in the U.S., faces the press at the Vatican on April 24, 2002. The Remnant's Chirstopher Ferrara was there to ask McCarrick the $64,000 question.

(Reuters photo)

Anatomy of a Cover-up

C. Ferrara/ Continued from Page 6

he needed immediate treatment for a health problem." A few months later, Bergoglio created the Vatican sinecure for his friend at ASPA.

When the allegations of Zanchetta’s sexual misconduct first exploded into the world media at the beginning of January, the Vatican Press Office, through its interim spokesman Alessandro Gisotti (replacing the sacked Greg Burke) gave a statement to AP denying that Bergoglio had known anything of the allegations before Zanchetta’s appointment to ASPA in December of 2017. In the wake of the justpublished AP report, however, the Vatican has had to fall back on Manzano’s hairsplitting distinction between "a report about alleged sexual abuse [from Manzano and others] and a formal complaint."

As Lawler had rightly concluded nine days before this new evidence surfaced:

The Zanchetta case demonstrates that Pope Francis continues to protect his friends and allies, regardless of his professed commitment to accountability. This one case illustrates how, since Francis was elected, the Vatican has actually moved backward [his emphasis] on two crucial fronts: the fight against sexual abuse and the quest for financial transparency. In this pontificate, the cause of reform is dead, unless the reform begins with the Pontiff himself.

Note well: Even a commentator who had never previously been inclined to level strong criticism of any Pope now declares that the reform of the Church under Bergoglio is impossible unless it begins "with the Pontiff himself." Lawler’s piece demonstrates that there is scarcely a responsible Catholic commentator left who has not had quite enough of Bergoglio’s double-talk and crooked maneuvers.

The Bergoglian double-talk now reportedly includes some carefully timed statements in an upcoming book-interview wherein he suddenly recognizes that homosexuality is a problem in the Church after all and that homosexuals should not be admitted to seminary. This, Life Site rightly observes, fits Bergoglio’s "established… pattern of saying one controversial thing which deflects attention from another controversial matter." The same would be true concerning reports of statements Bergoglio made behind closed doors to the Italian bishops last May to the effect that that "it is better" that homosexuals not be admitted to seminary if there is "the slightest doubt" about their fitness.

There will never, of course, be any official and binding declaration from Bergoglio to the universal Church strictly banning those afflicted by the homosexual disorder from admission to seminaries or barring their path to ordination should they succeed in being admitted. On this issue, as with so many others, Bergoglio will say one thing while he intends to do quite the opposite— in this case, nothing. Nothing, that is, except to protect friends and allies who engage in or cover up homosexual activity. ■ To be continued next issue with:

Worse than the Borgias?