Argentine Archbishop Víctor Manuel Fernández, chosen by Pope Francis to head a powerful Vatican office, admitted on Sunday that he made mistakes in the way he handled the case in 2019 of a priest accused of sexual abuse of minors, which still haunts him. draws criticism for allegedly having protected the cleric.
“Today I would certainly act very differently and certainly my performance was insufficient… I have it absolutely clear; Today I have more experience and I have other procedures,” Fernández told AP during an interview after officiating a mass in the city of La Plata, some 70 kilometers from Buenos Aires.
Pope Francis appointed Fernández on July 1 to head, starting in September, the Holy See’s Dicastery for the Doctrine of the Faith, which guarantees doctrinal orthodoxy and one of whose areas consists of handling accusations of sexual abuse brought against him. clergy.
The archbishop was also made a cardinal on Sunday by the pope along with about twenty priests.
BishopAccountability.org, a United States organization that maintains an online file on abuses in the Catholic Church, recently questioned the appointment of the archbishop at the head of the Dicastery, stating that he refused to believe the allegations of minors who accused Eduardo Lorenzo, priest of the archdiocese of La Plata, for having abused them.
At the end of 2019, hours after learning that an Argentine judge had ordered his arrest for the alleged sexual abuse of five children, Lorenzo was found lifeless at Cáritas de La Plata facilities, in what was considered a suicide, preventing the celebration of a possible judgment to elucidate his responsibility.
In response to the criticism from the US organization, Fernández told the AP days ago in a statement that he “never” said he did not believe these allegations and that he took steps to distance the priest from the alleged victims.
But on Sunday, during the interview, he was more self-critical of his behavior, which he attributed to the fact that he arrived at the Archbishopric of La Plata in 2018 “without any experience in another diocese”, since at that time the procedures for dealing with complaints of Abuses committed by clergy “were less clear.”
“I cannot say that I have committed a crime or something against what was established at that time, but that I could have been a much better father, a much better pastor and much more efficient, of course I recognize that,” said the cardinal.
“With everything I say it is clear that I did not act in the best way,” he stressed.
In his defense, he indicated that he allowed himself to be guided by people who “did not have the elements” that are currently available to proceed, whom he did not identify.
“In recent years we have made enormous progress, there are protocols from the Holy See, from the Episcopal Conference that were completed not long ago, which are much clearer. It allows us to make faster and more appropriate decisions,” said the archbishop.
Fernández stated that if he had to correct something, he would have “treated the victims more closely” and “taken the measures a little earlier” to remove Lorenzo from his tasks as a priest while the canonical cause to investigate him ran parallel to the headline. for criminal justice.
“I was waiting to see how justice acted, what the prosecutor did, what objective elements came to us,” he argued.
The complaints against Lorenzo had begun in 2008, when the godparents of a minor accused him of abuse, but the Argentine justice system closed the case, understanding that there was not enough incriminating evidence.
Eleven years later, the lawyer Juan Pablo Gallego managed to have the criminal case reopened and began to represent other complainants while the canonical justice made its inquiries, Fernández being archbishop of La Plata.
Anne Barrett Doyle, co-director of BishopAccountability.org, did not believe the archbishop’s words.
“He declares himself puzzled, but he is a sophisticated and educated man. When he arrived in La Plata in 2018, the clergy sexual abuse crisis had been front-page news for decades. His claims of ignorance are not credible,” Barrett Doyle said.
The activist questioned that after the scandal over the figure of Lorenzo resurfaced, Fernández left him in the parish ministry for long months and “repeatedly” demonstrated his support for the priest.
“He abandoned his responsibility to the victims and deepened their suffering… If Archbishop Fernández finally repented of his handling of this case, why did he never reach out to Lorenzo’s victims?” Barrett Doyle wondered.
According to the plaintiffs’ lawyer, Fernández’s reflection “is very late.”
“I had to live that Fernández worked quickly to somehow interfere in the judicial investigation,” Gallego asserted.
The lawyer indicated that the Interdiocesan Ecclesiastical Court of La Plata under the command of Fernández provided elements that sought to protect the denounced priest, which is denied by the archbishop.
Fernández was also questioned for having given protection to the priest at the Cáritas facilities, for having shown himself with him in photographs found on the Archbishopric’s website and for having celebrated a mass in his name after his suicide, in which he stated that the priest had been through a great deal of stress.
Fernández said that he had spoken with the Pope about the criticism received about Lorenzo’s case. “He told me: ‘You explain reality as it was.’
On the other hand, regarding the versions about the future functions that he will have in the doctrinal orthodoxy surveillance office, the archbishop pointed out that the pope told him to dedicate himself to the doctrinal or theological section and trust what refers to child abuse to the disciplinary section that has specialized professionals.
He said he will make sure that the latter area “has everything he needs, the support, and the resources for his work.”
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