Daily Beastly treatment of The Man from Argentina, how it’s done in cynical/realistic/in-your-face,front-page style, in which the story’s the thing. Not a or any story but the story:

DON’T CRY FOR HIM

Pope Francis’ Argentinean Protegé Accused of Sex Abuse

An Argentine in a suspiciously cushy job in the Vatican’s treasury is now credibly accused of abusing seminarians in Argentina—and everyone wants to know what the pope knew when.

What are the beastly to say, in face of such a story?

ROME—When 53-year-old Gustavo Óscar Zanchetta abruptly left his post as bishop of Orán in Argentina in July 2017, he cited “health reasons” and a need for “treatment.” Many were concerned that he might have a terminal disease, according to local press reports at the time. After all, the popular bishop didn’t even seem well enough to hold a farewell mass.

Zanchetta tendered his resignation to Pope Francis, who often sits on such matters for months. Instead, the pope granted it within three days, according to the Associated Press, which broke the story, and soon Zanchetta was on his way to Rome, first spending time at an undisclosed location in Spain.

Now safely in Vatican City where he enjoys diplomatic immunity, the bishop stands credibly accused of sexually harassing young seminarians in the home country he shares with Francis.

Look. How ridiculous can a pontiff get? Having done his best to be a Beastly kind of pope, he’s become a Beastly kind of butt. Moral high ground, from which he can take a lead role in making this a better world? Not quite.

Not long after resigning, Zanchetta showed up on Pope Francis’ doorstep in Rome, apparently miraculously cured. Francis, who had made his fellow countryman a bishop right after becoming pope in 2013, naturally helped him out. Francis, back when he was Cardinal Jose Bergoglio and archbishop of Argentina, apparently knew Zanchetta well. He gave the younger man a high-ranking position in the Argentinean Bishops Conference when he was president of the organization. It made sense that he would find a place for a fellow Argentine in the Curia in Rome.

You just don’t get that sort of coverage from the boldest of politesse-equipped church-oriented media, whose market would be caught dramatically unaware. Can’t be done, that is, by some with more skin in the game than pushing the story. Which story this beast seems to have discovered.

. . . in its Journal, where news is

Tax Refunds Will Be Paid During Shutdown, White House Says

New policy meant to ‘mitigate the impact’ of shutdown, Vice President Mike Pence says

Mind one:

J  Why do you love Trump more than the American people?

Mind two:

S 

1. Two thoughtful, competent, ethical, moral and constitution directed jurists appointed to the Supreme Court. More to follow.

2. Moral, ethical and grounded jurists appointed to the Federal Judiciary

3.. America’s tax structure made somewhat competitive with its global competitors

4. A tax code even more fair, one that fewer than 50% of Americans actually pay any Federal Income tax despite a government that spends $78,532 per capita.

5. Rebuilding our Defenses is underway.

5. Lowest unemployment for Blacks, Latinos and other minorities that have been paid lip service to for over a century

6. No more apologies by POTUS to other nations.

7. Substantial reductions in the millions of pages of regulations hung on the economy by 8 very very long years of Obama

8. Our daughters not having to fear men masquerading as women in the ladies’ restroom

9. Obamacare in its last days of its always certain death march, the end of its ‘death’ squad panels.

10. etc. etc.

Crash.

Something there is that doesn’t love a two-timer, a worrisome thing that makes you sing the blues . . .

He dings the American bishops for a lack of credibility as his own takes another hit in the wake of a new Vatican scandal.

Pope Francis lectured the American bishops this week on their “crisis of credibility” even as his own reputation took another hit in the wake of revelations about one of his protégés. It turns out that another McCarrick-like predator has been nesting at the Vatican under the patronage of this famously permissive pope. “Pope Francis’ Argentinean Protégé Accused of Sex Abuse,” reported the Daily Beast.

The accused bishop is Gustavo Óscar Zanchetta, a crony of Pope Francis’s from his days as archbishop of Buenos Aires. According to the story, Zanchetta, who has been accused of preying upon priests and seminarians, has long benefited from his friendship with the pope, first in Argentina, where Bergoglio orchestrated his elevation to a top-ranking position within the Argentinean Bishops Conference and then “made his fellow countryman a bishop right after becoming pope in 2013.” Zanchetta didn’t last long in that post, resigning in 2017 under a mysterious cloud of priestly complaints and claims of poor “health.” He scurried out of Argentina without even saying a “farewell mass,” according to the story, only to turn up shortly thereafter on “Pope Francis’ doorstep in Rome,” where Zanchetta was quickly thrown a new papal plum: . . . etc. etc.

This pope, he’s a two-faced thing, seems not to know he can’t fool all of the people all of the time. We of the watching and listening unwashed can only hope he gets it one of these days, I mean, how obvious can you be? Tsk, tsk, tut, tut . . .

More, more, culled at random, embarrassing riches:

The Vatican is once again playing dumb, claiming it knew nothing of the allegations against Zanchetta at the time of his new appointment. But who believes that? This is a pontificate that turned a predator known to Francis, Theodore McCarrick, into a papal envoy and dispatched him to the ends of the earth.

The pope’s plum-throwing to perverts is simply a habit he can’t break, not even at the most intense moment of the abuse scandal. A couple of weeks ago the pope vowed that the Church would “never’ conceal predators again. At that very moment, Zanchetta was working down the hall, overseeing the real estate holdings of the Church, even though one of the reasons for his disappearance from his diocese was that he had misused Church funds in furtherance of his misconduct.

Woe.