The criminal trial of Polish former archbishop Jose Wesolowski, that was due to begin on Saturday 11 July 2015 in the Vatican City State Tribunal, has been postponed indefinitely due to the illness of Wesolowski. The Tribunal was to hear accusations of pedophilia against Wesolowski while he served as the papal nuncio in the Dominican Republic from 2008 to 2013. Wesolowski is the highest-ranking Roman Catholic Church employee to be tried by the Vatican. The Vatican reported that Wesolowski was admitted to the intensive care unit of an unnamed hospital after suffering an “unforeseen illness”.
Later, the Italian press would report he was found intoxicated and under the influence of pharmaceuticals as reported in Courriere de la Sera.
Wesolowski also faces child pornography charges allegedly committed in Rome between August 2013 and September 2014, after being recalled to Rome from the Dominican Republic.
Dominican prosecutors documented accusations that Wesolowski took advantage of poor shoeshine boys. He hastily left the Dominican Republic after TV journalists began investigating the allegations of child abuse against him. At the time, the Catholic Church echelons in the Dominican Republic openly defended the nuncio. Shortly after Wesolowski returned to Rome, Monsignor Agripino Nunez, Rector of the PUCMM, admitted it was likely that Wesolowski had committed wrongdoings.
Wesolowski was the first high-ranking Vatican prelate to be criminally charged at the Holy See for sexually abusing minors. The developments in this case are being watched closely to gage whether the Catholic Church will change its handling of child sexual accusations under Pope Francis.
Crux Now reports that in Saturday’s six-minute hearing in a tiny courtroom, the clerk read out the charges, including one of “conduct that offends the principles of Christian religion or morality for having repeatedly accessed pornographic sites.”
Another charge described how Wesolowski o in one case with the alleged complicity of his aide, a former deacon o allegedly “corrupted, through lewd acts, adolescents presumed to be between 13 and 16 years old, in order to carry out on them, and in their presence, sexual acts.” Prosecutors said that at least once the sexual activity happened in a public place.
The indictment also accused Wesolowski of causing psychological harm to his victims.
Wesolowski has been defrocked. However, he has formally appealed the decision.
Crux Now reports that “Wesolowski was ordained and later appointed as bishop by St. John Paul II, a fellow Pole whose papacy was marked by reluctance to remove bishops in abuse scandals.”
Before arriving in the Dominican Republic in 2008, Wesolowski was nuncio to Bolivia, Kazakhstan, Tajikistan, Kyrgyzstan and Uzbekistan.
A fellow Polish priest, Wojciech Gil, who had been filmed in pool activities with the papal nuncio and minors as part of the first investigative video to air on his suspect pedophilia activities, was tried in Poland and sentenced to seven years in prison and to indemnize his victims in the Dominican Republic. Like Wesolowski, Wojciech Gil left the country after journalists began to investigate his activities with minors. Wojciech Gil served as a priest in Juncalito, Santiago from 2009 to 2013.
http://press.vatican.va/content/salastampa/it/bollettino/pubblico/2015/07/11/0558/01234.html
http://www.cruxnow.com/church/2015/07/11/jozef-wesolowski-hospitalized-ahead-of-trial-on-sexual-abuse-porn-charges/
http://www.channel3000.com/news/vatican-starts-trial-of-exambassador/34109684
http://www.theguardian.com/world/2015/jul/11/first-vatican-child-abuse-trial-delayed-jozef-wesolowski-taken-hospital
http://roma.corriere.it/notizie/cronaca/15_luglio_11/pedofilia-l-ex-vescovo-wesolowski-ricoverato-ospedale-slitta-processo-1bc5f5a0-27a2-11e5-ab65-6757d01b480d.shtml
Diario italiano dice Wesolowski habría faltado a juicio por estar “ebrio”