Cardinal Mario Aurelio Poli
Photo: Wikimedia Commons
Metropolitan Archbishop Emeritus of Buenos Aires, Argentina
Dioceses/Religious Orders: Archdiocese of Buenos Aires, Diocese of Santa Rosa, Ordinariate of Argentina, Faithful of the Eastern Rites
In 2000, Fr. Fernando Enrique Picciochi, S.M., was criminally charged with repeated “corruption of minors” after a report was made by a young man who was abused as a 13-year-old at Marianista de Caballito School in Buenos Aires in the early 1990s. Though Picciochi was placed in protective custody, he managed to escape Argentina and flee to the United States. One of Picciochi’s victims sought the help of then Cardinal Bergoglio in lifting the gag order imposed by the Marianists, meeting twice with then Auxiliary Bishop of Buenos Aires Mario Poli. Poli soon after ceased contact with the victim, and Picciochi was not extradited to Argentina until 2010. Poli was named Bergoglio’s successor as Archbishop of Buenos Aires and made a cardinal in 2014.
In November 2019, a young man filed a report with authorities in Santa Rosa citing abuse by Fr. Hugo Pernini. In a televised interview, the man claimed that he met Poli, then Bishop of Santa Rosa, after mass in a pew at the cathedral in 2011. He said he had reported the abuse to Poli, adding “"He showed no empathy, no consideration at all; he just told me to be happy, to see a psychologist, and to move on with my life." Poli kept Pernini in ministry in the Diocese of Santa Rosa. Pernini was finally removed from ministry eight years later after the victim filed a criminal complaint, even though Pernini had been implicated in a high-profile drug trafficking case earlier that year.
In 2021, a man filed a complaint with the Dicastery for Bishops against Poli as well as Bishops Carlos Malfa and Oscar Ojea, all three members of the Executive Committee of the Argentine Episcopal Conference (CEA) for their conduct in violation of the provisions of the motu proprio Like a Loving Mother and Canon 1389 of the Code of Canon Law for their unequivocal support of Bishops Marcelo Daniel Colombo, Marcelo Mazzitelli, and Dante Braida, accused alongside three other priests for failing to investigate abuse by two monks, and even interfering in the case on behalf of the accused. Without offering any evidence behind their denunciation of the victim’s complaint, Poli and the other members of the CEA Executive Committee offered “full support” to the accused, "resolutely rejecting any cover-up" on their part.
In December 2022, Fr. Manuel Fernando Pascual was sentenced to 12 years in prison after being found guilty of aggravated sexual abuse of two nuns between 2012 and 2016. Pascual had been accused of forbidding the nuns to speak to one another, subjecting them to extreme diets, restricting their access to medication, and hearing their confessions after sexually assaulting them. The nuns first made a report to the Archdiocese of Buenos Aires, meeting with Poli several times, but turned to civil authorities after they said they were ignored by the church. During the trial, the nuns still lived at the site of their abuse where Pascual also resided and claimed they were threatened and their cellphones were hacked.
After Pascual’s conviction, Poli attempted to intervene, appearing in person to deliver a letter to then president of Court No. 3, Judge Gustavo Valle, saying, “"I reiterate the offer I made at the time to act as personal guarantor for the granting of his exemption from prison, in order to offer the Court - in the event that the address provided by the Defense is deemed inadequate - to serve his house arrest at an address in the Archbishopric of Buenos Aires , of which I am the owner." The judge ultimately ruled against this request.
A copy of the letter from Cardinal Poli to the judge of Court No. 3.