Poland Suspends Inquiry Into a Former Vatican Envoy

By Joanna Berendt
New York Times
December 22, 2014

http://www.nytimes.com/2014/12/23/world/europe/poland-suspends-inquiry-into-a-former-vatican-envoy.html?_r=0

WARSAW — Poland has suspended an investigation into the Polish-born former Vatican ambassador, Archbishop Jozef Wesolowski, who has been accused of sexually abusing boys while serving in the Dominican Republic.

Przemyslaw Nowak, a spokesman for Warsaw’s regional prosecutor’s office, said Monday that the investigation had been suspended for purely formal reasons. The Dominican investigators have not responded to Poland’s requests for materials and evidence concerning the allegations against Mr. Wesolowski, who has been defrocked. The inquiry could begin again if the Dominican Republic shares — or officially declines to share — the requested documentation, Mr. Nowak said.

Polish prosecutors have already been refused the materials by the Vatican, which will hold a criminal trial for its former envoy on charges of child sexual abuse. It will be the Vatican’s first trial of its kind. Last summer, the Vatican revoked Mr. Wesolowski’s diplomatic immunity.