Jerónimo Podestá

Jerónimo José Podestá (August 8, 1920 – June 23, 2000) was an Argentine Catholic bishop.

Life Podestá was born in Ramos Mejía, Greater Buenos Aires, Argentina, on August 8, 1920. He entered the seminary of La Plata in 1940. He was ordained a priest in 1946. He also studied at the Pontifical Gregorian University in Rome. After graduating in 1950 he taught at the seminary until 1962. On September 25, 1962, he was named a bishop along with other progressive priests, including Eduardo Pironio and Antonio Quarracino, both later cardinals. He received his episcopal consecration on December 22, 1962 from Antonio José Plaza, Archbishop of La Plata.

Podestá was 2nd bishop of Diocese of Avellaneda-Lanús from 1962 until 1967. He participated in three of the Second Vatican Council's four sessions, having missed the first and part of the second because he was not yet a bishop.

Luro recounts that in 1967 he had a confrontation with the papal nuncio, Umberto Mozzoni, but she gives no details except to say that it was decisive for his replacement as Bishop of Avellaneda. and Luro said in a book published in 2011 that Podestá's removal by the Church was paid for by a government subsidy for the Catholic University of Argentina, and that Plaza gained by the government covering up the bank affair. Perteagudo says that, after being asked to resign, Podestá went to Rome and was assured by Pope Paul VI that nothing would happen, but that, three days after his return to Argentina, he received notification from Rome that his resignation was accepted. After his resignation became public in December, he attacked Mozzoni for leaking the news. Church officials suggested Podestá had resigned due to health problems and denied any pressure from the government.

In 1972, Podestá married Luro. At times he and his wife celebrated Mass together.

He left Argentina in 1974 after repeated threats from the death squads of the Alianza Anticomunista Argentina (Argentine Anti-Communist Alliance) and returned in 1983 after the overthrow of the military dictatorship.

Podestá was the president of the (Latin American Federation of Married Priests). He was the only Argentine church official to visit Podestá in the hospital. Luro later said that Bergoglio defended her from the sharpest Vatican attacks on her for marrying Podestá.

He died in Buenos Aires on June 23, 2000. Argentine writer Ernesto Sabato later said he had "suffered injustice, lack of understanding, slander and gossip".

Works La violencia del amor (1968) La revolución del hombre nuevo (1969) Hombre, Iglesia y liberación (1971) El Vaticano dice no: sacerdocio y matrimonio, with Clelia Luro (1992)