ARGENTINA: Sex Scandal Triggers Archbishop’s Resignation

By Marcela Valente Reprint | | Print |

Marcela Valente

BUENOS AIRES, Sep 26 2002 (IPS) - The sex abuse scandals shaking the Roman Catholic Church in the United States and other countries reached Argentina this week, where the archbishop of the country’s second largest city, accused of abusing teenage seminary students, handed in his resignation.

The news that the archbishop of the eastern province of Santa Fe, Edgardo Storni, had offered his resignation elicited expressions of relief from Catholics here, some of whom complained that the Church hierarchy had covered up the archbishop’s “weaknesses” – which were reportedly an open secret – for years.

Church officials announced Wednesday in Santa Fe, the capital of the province of that name, that the archbishop handed in his resignation to Pope John Paul II Saturday in the Vatican, where he was taking part in a bishops meeting.

Next Wednesday he is due to testify in court.

The public reaction was immediate. Those who had denounced Storni spoke more openly about the case, and some churchgoers even demanded that the archbishop be thrown into prison.

Pablo Ordano was a 14-year-old student at the Santa Fe seminary directed by Storni the day he opened the door to the director’s room and found him in bed with another priest.

Ordano, who is now 37, said Thursday in Chile, where he is living today, that the experience was deeply disturbing.

Although in the past Ordano had timidly alluded to some of the details of Storni’s private life, this time he was more open. The priests “did not try to hide what they were doing. They acted without any sense of shame, as if it were only natural,” he said.

In time, “I heard many similar stories,” he added.

The former seminary student said Storni’s claim, in his letter of resignation, that he had reached his decision “against the advice of many,” was “cynical” and “incredibly arrogant.”

In his letter, the archbishop said people should not make “distorted interpretations” of his decision to resign, which he said did not “in any way mean that I accept the allegations or admit to any guilt.”

Some of Storni’s alleged victims preferred not to go public with the testimony that they will give in court.

But Catholic priests Severino Montes and José Guntern, of Santa Fe, said they were pleased with the news that Storni had decided to resign.

Montes confirmed that he had sent a letter to the archbishop in 1994, informing his superior that he had heard of his “illness,” telling him that “an illness is not a sin,” and recommending that he “distance himself” from the Church before the problem got any worse.

By “illness” Montes meant “homosexuality,” as he explained to the judge handling the case, who has heard the testimony of seminary students, former seminarians, priests and lay workers.

“But if that homosexuality was exercised with minors, the problem is even worse,” stressed the priest.

Guntern also warned the archbishop in writing that he was aware of his “indiscretions” with seminary students, and suggested that he abandon all religious activity.

Guntern, 82, said that when his letter was made public a few weeks ago, he was taken from his house by a group of curates from the archbishop’s office and forced to sign a recantation under threat of death.

The incident triggered spontaneous expressions of support from Guntern’s parishioners, and an investigation was launched by a Santa Fe court into charges of “illegitimate deprivation of liberty and coercion.”

But Storni took the retraction that Guntern said he signed under duress to the Vatican, where he presented it as evidence that the charges against him were false.

“If he were just a regular person, he would be called a degenerate, but since he’s a priest, the Church protects him,” said a caller to the Mitre radio station, which invited listeners to call in Thursday to comment on the news of Storni’s resignation.

“If he chose to live like a man, then he should go to jail like a man,” said another listener, who said he was a Catholic, like the overwhelming majority of Argentina’s 37 million people.

Allegations against Storni first arose in 1994. But the case turned into a public scandal last month, when journalist Olga Wornat’s book “Nuestra Santa Madre” (Our Holy Mother) was published, and an inquiry was opened.

One chapter of the book refers to the supposed abuses committed by Storni, and relates the investigation carried out in 1994 by the archbishop of Mendoza, José Arancibia – on the Vatican’s orders – in which around 50 seminarians and priests were questioned.

But after the report was sent to the Vatican, Church authorities reportedly concluded there was a lack of evidence.

Storni, who has drawn criticism for running his diocese in an authoritarian manner, was named archbishop in 1984, as the successor to Vicente Zazpe, a man who had strong roots in the local community and was a staunch defender of human rights.

According to Wornat, the Vatican pressured Storni to resign, although the archbishop claimed in his letter that his decision was reached in a “free and spontaneous” manner.

This year’s explosion of denunciations of pedophilia by priests has been centred in the United States, but has also shaken the Roman Catholic Church in Mexico, Australia, Canada and several European countries.

John Paul called a special meeting to discuss the issue in April, in which the cardinals adopted a “zero tolerance” policy towards priests implicated in sex abuse scandals. The Pope publicly apologised to Catholics worldwide for the suffering and pain that had been caused by “wayward” priests.