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SAN ROMAN DE LA NUEVA ORAN, Argentina (LifeSiteNews) – Pope Francis has appointed Bishop Gustavo Zanchetta’s canon lawyer to investigate priests, deacons, and seminarians who testified against the convicted sex offender.
The case of the Argentine bishop serving a sentence in prison for abuse took an unexpected turn this week when Pope Francis sent the prelate’s canon lawyer to investigate the priests and seminarians of the Oran diocese.https://t.co/apZMjrG7I9
— Crux (@Crux) June 25, 2022
Loyola Pinto, the judge of the Ecclesiastical Tribunal for the Argentinian province of Salta, confirmed that Spanish canon lawyer Javier Belda Iniesta was indeed appointed by the Pope.
Belda Iniesta, who formerly defended the imprisoned bishop, will thus now perform a second role in the Zanchetta saga: investigating those who testified to his abusive behavior. He would not confirm the nature of his investigation, but said it technically “has nothing to do with the case of the abuses of the former bishop of Oran.”
It was suggested in Oran newspaper El Oranense that the investigation into some of Zanchetta’s accusers might be a form of intimidation against those whose testimony was relevant in the bishop’s fall from grace.
A former seminarian from Oran agreed, saying that “they are trying to make them [the witnesses] understand that what they testified is not so; it is a kind of pressure… and they are afraid.”
Belda Iniesta told Argentinian news outlet Salta12 that he did not see a conflict of interest.
“I perform tasks as a defender in some cases, and in others I perform the role of investigator, notary, or even judge. There is nothing strange about it. In this case, I already knew the place,” he said.
Zanchetta is a personal friend of Pope Francis and is currently serving the four and a half year prison sentence he was given in March as a result of his sexual abuse of young men. His lawyer has requested that Zanchetta be permitted to serve his sentence under house arrest in a monastery.
Zanchetta, formerly the Bishop of the Diocese of Oran, was one of the first prelates to be appointed a bishop by Francis after his election to the papacy in 2013. In 2017, Zanchetta suddenly left his diocese of Oran, saying that he need to go to Europe for medical treatment.
Upon his arrival in Europe, the bishop stepped into a position created for him inside the Administration of the Patrimony of the Apostolic See (APSA). The APSA deals with “provisions owned by the Holy See in order to provide the funds necessary for the Roman Curia to function.”
Catholic journalist Christopher Altieri wrote in July 2020 that the APSA “is roughly and readily the Vatican’s central bank. Altieri found Zanchetta’s new role startling given the fact that Zanchetta was accused of financial irregularities during his tenure as Bishop of Oran.
It was reported in 2019 that Francis knew about the sexual misconduct accusations against Zanchetta before the bishop took up his new position in Rome.
Vatican officials denied that Pope Francis was engaged in a cover-up of Zanchetta’s actions, but one of the bishop’s accusers said he was “a spiritual child of the Holy Father.”
While accusations of homosexual abuse were circulating – which included the sharing of naked selfies with seminarians – Zanchetta was invited to a private retreat with Pope Francis in 2019.
Zanchetta remains a priest in good standing, despite being found guilty of abuse by the Argentine courts.