Vatican City: Pope Francis on July 20 accepted the resignation of Honduran Auxiliary Bishop Juan José Pineda, following an investigation revealing his embezzlement of diocesan money as well as alleged sexual assault of seminarians.
The Vatican offered no public reason for the abrupt resignation, as Pineda was only 57, well below the normal retirement age of 75 for bishops.
Pineda was a close ally of Cardinal Oscar Rodriguez Maradiaga, nicknamed the “Vice Pope” for his closeness to the Pope. In addition to leading the archdiocese of Tegucigalpa in Honduras, Maradiaga heads the circle of cardinal-advisors to Pope Francis.
According to Martha Alegría Reichman, friend to Maradiaga for 40 years, Maradiaga has known about Pineda’s misdeeds and protected him.
“Cardinal Oscar Rodríguez Maradiaga knows everything his right hand does, Auxiliary Bishop Juan Pineda, but he has always covered and protected him,” said the widow of Alejandro Valladares, former head of the Diplomatic Corps in the Vatican. “He does whatever it takes to rescue him. … He has been doing it for almost 20 years.”
Reichmann claimed in March that the cardinal was responsible for the loss of a great deal of her family’s money and has never addressed the financial mishandling.
In 2012, the cardinal had directed her husband to invest a large amount of money in a London firm, with funds administered by a Muslim acquaintance, Youssry Henien. Maradiaga had allegedly also invested $1.2 million of diocesan money in the same firm.
The resignation of Pineda is the latest in a series of high-ranking clergy implicated in sexual improprieties with adults under their authority.
The Pope had ordered an investigation into the allegations against Pineda last year.
Cardinal Maradiaga had frequently left the archdiocese in Pineda’s care due to his obligations as a member of the Pope’s kitchen cabinet, and poor health that has forced him to seek medical treatment overseas.
The Vatican investigation had focused on both sexual misconduct allegations against Pineda and financial mismanagement charges against Maradiaga.
Pope Francis has stood by Maradiaga’s assertion of innocence on the financial improprieties charges.
According to reports in the Italian newsmagazine L’Espresso, Pinedo was known to have had intimate relations with several men, including some favorites whom he bestowed with gifts. Several seminarians reported his attempted advances.
Recently, q highly respected American cardinal, Theodore McCarrick was removed from public ministry following revelations he sexually abused both minors and adults.
The archbishop of Paris recently sanctioned a well-known French priest and psychotherapist after several male patients accused him of sexual improprieties during therapy. Father Tony Anatrella, considered an expert in homosexuality and gender studies, was an adviser to two Vatican offices. He is appealing the reprimand that he cease all public ministry.
And in Chile, where all 31 active bishops offered to resign this spring over their botched handling of cases sexual abuse against children, recent revelations have uncovered networks of sexually active gay priests and the complicit bishops who protected them.
Sources: churchmilitant.com