ARGENTINA: Talk of Alleged Plot Surrounds Resignation of Progressive Bishop

By Marcela Valente Reprint | | Print |

Marcela Valente

BUENOS AIRES, Aug 23 2005 (IPS) - Argentina’s episcopal conference expressed solidarity with a bishop known for his social action who reportedly resigned in the face of threats that a compromising video would be made public. However, the bishops made no reference to the alleged campaign to discredit him.

In a brief statement issued Monday, the Roman Catholic Church hierarchy thanked the former bishop of the northern province of Santiago del Estero, Juan Carlos Maccarone, for his “long years of work at the service of the poor.”

The communiqué expressed support for Maccarone “with affection and comprehension,” but did not mention the reason for his resignation.

Maccarone, 64, who was bishop of one of the country’s poorest dioceses, submitted his resignation to Pope Benedict XVI on Friday.

The resignation was accepted with unusual celerity under a church law provision that calls for a bishop to resign if, “because of illness or some other grave reason, (he) has become unsuited for the fulfilment of his office.”

There were reports Monday that the day before he resigned, Maccarone apologised to his closest associates for behaviour that was not in line with Catholic morals and told them he planned to step down.

Since then the bishop has not been seen in public, and he has avoided contact with the press.

His associates said that early this month, the bishop was filmed without his consent in a compromising sexual relationship with another man, and that he was facing threats that the video would be made available to the media.

Those close to the bishop interpreted the episode as a deliberate strategy aimed at discrediting one of Argentina’s most progressive bishops, just two months before the election of the local Church’s highest authorities, in which Maccarone had a chance of winning a prominent position.

Three days after Maccarone resigned, the Church hierarchy issued a statement acknowledging “the weakness of the sons of the Church,” and said “the truth cannot be hidden” and that they shared the people’s “pain and bewilderment” over his decision to step down. But they said nothing about the purported plot to force the bishop to resign.

Catholic priest Eduardo de la Serna, who belongs to the “Carlos Mujica” movement of progressive priests, told IPS that Maccarone was “one of Argentina’s best bishops,” and that it was “ridiculous” to think that an incident involving his private life had led to the resignation of a bishop of his calibre.

“It’s obvious that Maccarone was facing a local mafia and that those who were opposed to him were going to do whatever they could to take vengeance on him,” said de la Serna, who is in favour of a debate on celibacy in the priesthood.

Maccarone replaced Bishop Gerardo Sueldo in 1998, who died that year in a suspicious car accident that was never clarified.

Sueldo, like Maccarone, was an outspoken critic of the administration of former governor Carlos Juarez, who ruled the province of Santiago del Estero with an iron fist for decades, until 2003.

The priests in Maccarone’s diocese also expressed their support for the bishop. But unlike the episcopal conference, they directly referred to the video and the alleged plot to get him out of the way.

“We recognise the limitations of the Church, we are weak, we have our frailties,” admitted Sergio Lamberti, one of the priests close to the former bishop.

However, referring to Maccarone’s apparent sexual involvement with a 23-year-old man who is said to appear in the video, he stressed that “It was a relationship between two responsible adults.”

The clarification was a pointed one. Three years ago, then-archbishop Edgardo Storni was legally accused of sexual abuse of minors. In the eight years prior to that, he had been repeatedly accused of paedophilia, and a lengthy report on him had been presented to the Vatican.

But it was not until the public took to the streets to demand his removal that Storni, archbishop of the eastern city of Rosario at the time, was removed.

In Lamberti’s view, the real reason underlying Maccarone’s departure was not his private life, even though the Church demands celibacy and condemns homosexuality as a sin and a sexual perversion.

In this case no crime was committed, because the man who was filmed with the bishop was a consenting adult, the priest noted.

“We are persecuted for other reasons, and they take advantage of our weaknesses,” said the priest. “It’s clear that this was orchestrated, to bring him down.”

In 2003, Maccarone took part in a number of protests that prompted the central government’s decision to directly take over the administration of the province. The provincial governments of Juárez and his wife Nina Aragonés faced numerous accusations of human rights violations.

The province was run by central government authorities for nearly two years until new elections were held.

Deputy Governor Emilio Rached admitted that the bishop may have resigned due to threats and pressure involving a compromising video.

“We have a history and a past involving such questions that is much worse than dark,” he said, alluding to the murky circumstances surrounding Bishop Sueldo’s death.