The Appeals Court of the Argentine province of Salta granted conditional release to Mons. Gustavo Zanchetta, Emeritus Bishop of Orán, who was sentenced in 2022 to four years and six months in prison for sexual abuses against two seminarians.
The resolution, known this Friday, allows the prelate to continue the sentence under a regime of substitute measures: fixed domicile, psychological treatment, and periodic appearances before the justice system. In practice, the bishop convicted of sexual abuses now lives in freedom.
The victims’ indignation: “impunity with ecclesial complicity”
According to El Tribuno, the indulgence toward Zanchetta was built step by step: first, house arrest in a monastery in Orán; then, authorization to travel to Italy claiming medical treatment; and now, conditional release, which in practice leaves him in full freedom.
The abused former seminarians sum it up bluntly: “Zanchetta was never imprisoned.” Each judicial benefit, they point out, is a new wound that multiplies the feeling of impunity.
The Network of Survivors of Ecclesiastical Abuses in Argentina reacted harshly to the judicial decision. In a public statement, they described the release as “a clear demonstration of the impunity of the Catholic Church.”
The text denounces the complicity of a “corrupt and servile judicial power” along with “a sector of the Church, from the bishops to the late Pope Francis, who proposed the empty slogan of zero tolerance.” It also points to the current bishop of Orán, Mons. Luis Scozzina, as a cover-up, and compares the protection network for Zanchetta to “an illicit association.”
“With that compact, unjust, macabre, and all-powerful mixture, the abuser Gustavo Zanchetta achieved a meager sentence of four years and six months,” the statement underscores, recalling that he was even allowed to travel to Italy under the excuse of medical treatments.
The Vatican background: from Francisco’s trust to a position in the APSA
The Zanchetta case can only be understood in light of his close relationship with Pope Francis. Zanchetta was one of the first episcopal appointments of the Argentine pontiff, in 2013, when he designated him bishop of Orán.
In 2017, he submitted his resignation citing health problems, but the Argentine press revealed that the real cause was complaints of abuse of power, disastrous management, and harassment of seminarians. Far from being sidelined, Zanchetta found refuge in the Casa Santa Marta, the papal residence, and the Pope created for him a position as advisor in the Administration of the Patrimony of the Apostolic See (APSA), the body that manages the Vatican’s financial assets.
In 2019, when the scandal broke, the Holy See acknowledged that he had been temporarily removed from his duties. In an interview with Valentina Alazraki, the Pope himself defended having acted with a “presumption of innocence” and recounted that Zanchetta assured him that obscene images found on his phone were the result of a “hack.”
The attempt to silence InfoVaticana
The prelate, an intimate of the Pope and beneficiary of positions created to his measure in the Vatican, not only received indulgent treatment in Argentine justice, but also attempted to silence the media investigating his case. We recall that in 2021 he filed a lawsuit against InfoVaticana, demanding 300,000 euros and attempting to force the revelation of the identity of collaborators like Specola and Carlos Esteban.
The bishop accused the media outlet of slander and defamation. The conciliation in the Madrid courts ended without agreement, and InfoVaticana’s defense denounced it as an attempt to attack press freedom and freedom of expression in the Church.
Chronology of the Zanchetta scandal
- 2013: Pope Francis appoints Gustavo Zanchetta bishop of Orán.
- 2017: He resigns citing health problems. The Argentine press reveals accusations of harassment and abuse of power.
- 2017-2018: He is welcomed in the Casa Santa Marta and appointed advisor in the APSA.
- 2019: Sexual abuse complaints erupt. The Holy See opens a preliminary investigation.
- 2020: Zanchetta returns to his position in the Vatican, despite the open investigation.
- 2022: He is sentenced in Argentina to 4 years and 6 months in prison.
- 2022 (July): He manages to serve the sentence under house arrest in a monastery.
- 2025 (February): The sentence becomes final.
- 2025 (September): The court grants him conditional release, generating new complaints of impunity.