From Complicit Clergy site
A former seminarian is alleging that he received pressure and threats from Bishop Gustavo Zanchetta, a close friend of Pope Francis, after he complained about abuse he received from a priest in Zanchetta’s diocese. The young man also provided testimony against Zanchetta during the March 2022 trial of the Argentinian bishop, who was given a prison sentence of four and a half years.
The case of Kevin Montes
On May 15, the trial of Father Carlos Fernando Páez will be heard in Argentina’s northwestern province of Salta. An ex-seminarian for the Diocese of Orán, using the alias Kevin Montes, has alleged that Fr. Páez manipulated and sexually abused him when Montes was a seminarian for the diocese.
Montes, now 26, was an Orán seminarian from February 28, 2015 through 2019. He claims that Páez abused him during his time in the seminary and while on parish placement, and that Zanchetta turned a blind eye at first.
Speaking after Zanchetta was himself sentenced last spring, Montes stated that Páez began abusing him from the start of his time in seminary. However, the bishop was not receptive of Montes’ reports about the priest: “I entered the seminary in 2015, I was a seminarian, and then I had a problem with Zanchetta in August and he took me out of the seminary.”
Montes stated that Zanchetta “persecuted me because I did not accept that he [Páez][held] my genitals and hugged me from behind. He began to tell me that I was an emotional orphan, that I had not received affection from my parents, and that is why it was difficult for me to receive this type of affection.”
Zanchetta encouraged Montes to develop a better relationship with Páez, the ex-seminarian said.
“Everyone in the diocese knew what Zanchetta was like: it was rumored that Zanchetta was homosexual, but no one dared to say so. There was a lot of secrecy about it,” Montes added.
Indeed, it was in 2015, after pornographic images of “homosexual sex,” along with “nude selfies” of Zanchetta himself were found on his phone, that Zanchetta was summoned to Rome. He excused himself as having been the victim of a phone hack, an excuse which Pope Francis accepted.
Next, Montes was sent by the bishop to his home parish, the parish of the Holy Cross in Tartagal. Here he was actually to live at the parish with Páez, who had been sent there in March 2015 – just after Montes entered the seminary
Citing examples of Páez’s “attractive personality” at work in the parish, Montes argued the priest “managed to make me emotionally dependent on him, because after Zanchetta took me out of the seminary, Páez made me come back and always reminded me that I had come back because of him. He made me feel that my priestly vocation depended on him.”
Páez reportedly began to implement controls on Montes – distancing the seminarian from his friends and checking his use of internet devices – warning that that if the protocols were not kept, then Montes “would not be able to be a priest or return to the formation house.”
First, he used seduction, showing himself to be “cool” … learned and intelligent. Then he flattered me. He let me make decisions in the parish where … decisions were made only by the priests. Finally, he took advantage of me.
A just trial?
Montes is now warning that Páez’s trial might not be conducted properly. The seminarian has even asked for guarantees for his safety. The original prosecutor in the case was in fact Páez’s catechist: when she was removed she was replaced by her husband, leading Montes to doubt the impartiality of the prosecution.
With the trial taking place in Tartagal – Montes’ home town and Páez’s former parish – the former seminarian has moved house in order to escape “revictimization” from locals.
Tartagal is a town with a small-town mentality,” he said. Páez “has a lot of influence in Tartagal with people in power… I’m afraid that if it takes place here in Tartagal the truth will not be found and justice will not be done. The truth is that I am afraid, and I don’t feel safe with the people who took the case
PAT SAYS
This story from South America has been repeated and continues to be repeated all over the RC world to the present day.
Popes protect their bishop friends.
Bishops protects their bishop and priest friends.
Priests protect their priest and seminarian friends…
And so ad infinitum.
As I was taught in seminary:
Great fleas have little fleas upon their backs to bite ’em,
And little fleas have lesser fleas, and so ad infinitum.
When institutions are old enough and corrupt enough, the evil in them becomes self-replicating.
That what has happened in the RCC.
BISHOP PAT BUCKLEY 