The Salta challenge court confirmed the sentence of 4 years and 6 months in prison against Mons. Gustavo Zanchetta, Bishop Emeritus of Oran (Argentina), for aggravated sexual abuse.
The original sentence, issued in March 2022 by the Oran Court of Judgment, was thus firm after the resource presented by defense.
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In their ruling, the judges highlighted the importance of the testimony of the victims, two seminarians of the diocese, and the correct evaluation of the evidence. They also underlined the validity of the 2022 judgment, appealed by Zanchetta’s defense, considering that the criticisms presented to it are not enough to reverse the conviction.
“The judgment appealed is valid and does not present vices of arbitrariness or defects in the formation processes of conviction, since the most relevant aspects of the probative plexus have been related in accordance with the rules of logic, without reaching to reverse the Criticism condemns tested within the framework of a appeal that is limited to a partial and decontextualized analysis of the evidence, ”said the challenge court.
The prelate, which in August 2017 He had resigned from his episcopal ministry in the diocese of the North Argentina Alleging health reasons, in December of the same year he was appointed advisor to the administration of the heritage of the Apostolic Headquarters (APSA) in the Vatican, AICA reported.
In 2019, when the accusations against him were made public, it was set out from his task, while a previous investigation was carried out headed by the Archbishop of Tucumán, Mons. Carlos Alberto Sánchez. This was reported by the interim director of the press room of the Holy See, Alessandro Gisotti, in a statement to the press on January 4 of that year. “During previous research, Mons. Zanchetta will refrain from working,” he said.
However, in 2020 Mons. Zanchetta returned to the Vatican to continue performing his task in the APSA. Matteo Bruni, director of the press office of the Holy See, then said to CNA – an English agency of the ACI group – that this “does not interfere in any way in the investigations.”
In 2022, when the conviction of civil justice was known to Mons. Zanchetta, the Argentine Episcopal Conference expressed their proximity to the victims along with a “strong and sincere order for forgiveness.”
A few months after his conviction, he obtained the benefit of house prison, which he fulfilled in a house for retired priests in the Nuestra Señora del Valle de New Oran monastery, of the Order of the Immaculate Conception – Franciscan Conceptionist Mothers.
Questioned for the benefit of house prison in ecclesial units of Oran, the local bishop, Mons. Luis Antonio Scozzina, asked that his gesture be interpreted as “an act of charity” of a church that “does not disregard.”
Beyond the civil conviction, Mons. Scozzina indicated that “in the Catholic field, the responsibility is also to take care of the person who is convicted, it is not expelled.”
At the end of 2024, it was known that Justice authorized him Also to travel to Rome to perform medical treatment, and has not yet returned to Oran, says the El Tribuno portal. ACI Press has not been able to confirm this information.
Pope Francis, about the Zanchetta case
Pope Francis referred to the case of Mons. Zanchetta in an interview granted in 2019 to the Mexican journalist of Televisa, Valentina Alazraki. Give arguing that he had been hacked.
“He defended himself well, then in the face of the obvious and a good defense is doubt, but, in Dubio Pro reo (in case of doubt, in favor of the defendant),” said the Pope.
The accusations against Zanchetta also revolved around the bad economic administration and their treatment towards the clergy. Faced with that complaint for abuse, “I did it and asked for the resignation. Very clear. I sent Spain to do a psychiatric test, ”said the Pontiff, and with the Medical Council of Traveling to Madrid once a month to continue the treatment,” it did not agree to return to Argentina “and stayed in the Vatican as an advisor.
Once his successor was appointed in Oran, Mons. Luis Antonio Scozzina, the Holy Father ordered a prior investigation of the accusations, and was in charge of the process to the Archbishop of Tucumán.
When he had the results, the Pope considered it necessary to make a judgment. “Then I passed it to the congregation of the doctrine of faith,” he explained. “I was still still since the first moment of this case,” he said.
Julieta Villar
I am a journalist, a graduate in Communication from the National University of La Matanza in Argentina. I have work experience in non -governmental organizations. Since 2016 I dedicate myself to Catholic journalism, first in the Argentine Catholic Information Agency (AICA) and, since 2022, as a correspondent for ACI Press for Argentina, Chile, Uruguay and Bolivia.