BUENOS AIRES, Argentina (ChurchMilitant.com) - Pope Francis, currently sporting a zero-tolerance policy in Rome, was known more for his zero-transparency policy concerning clerical sex abuse as the archbishop of Buenos Aires, Argentina.
In 1989, Sebastián Cuattromo, a student at a Catholic school in Buenos Aires, was the victim of homosexual predation by a teacher at the school, Br. Fernando Enrique Picciochi, S.M. In 2002, when Cuattromo sought help in seeking justice from the diocese then headed by Cdl. Jorge Bergoglio, his vicar, Fr. Mario Poli, stonewalled Cuattromo for seven years.
One of the first acts that Bergoglio would do as Pope Francis was to make Poli the archbishop of Buenos Aires.
Brother Picciochi, a teacher at the Marianista de Caballito School in the archdiocese of Buenos Aires, was convicted in 2012 for homosexual predation of multiple students from the school. In 1991, the Marianist superior, Luis Casalá, admitted that he was informed of Picciochi's homosexual abuse of Cuattromo two years prior and termed it "an act of aggression."
Following revelations of Cuattromo's abuse, Picciochi was sent for evaluation and deemed "normal, not homosexual." He was then transferred to a different diocese. In 2000, Picciochi was charged with "repeated corruption of minors" involving sexual abuse but fled to the United States. When Cuattromo sought help seeking justice in 2002 from the archdiocese, Cdl. Bergoglio's personal secretary, Fr. Martin Garcia Aguirre, and his vicar, Fr. Mario Poli, offered no assistance to Cuattromo whatsoever.
Father Poli, who turned a blind eye and deaf ear to Cuattromo, the 13-year-old victim of Picciochi's homosexual predation, was later elevated to the level of archbishop of Buenos Aires in March 2013 by Bergoglio when he became Pope that same month.
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