UNITED STATES
MSNBC
By Emma Margolin
Twin announcements from the Vatican on Monday showcased a surge of activity surrounding what Pope Francis once labeled a “scourge” of sexual abuse against minors, a scandal that has plagued the Catholic Church for decades. But survivors’ advocates, as well as one prominent Catholic conservative group, fear political motivations lie behind these latest actions.
Jozef Wesolowski, a defrocked archbishop and the Vatican’s former ambassador to the Dominican Republic, will stand trial next month on charges stemming from child sex assault, the Holy See said Monday. It marks the first Vatican-held criminal trial for sexual abuse.
The Vatican also announced on Monday that Pope Francis had accepted the resignations of two high-ranking Minnesota clerics facing criminal charges for mishandling complaints of sexual misconduct against a priest. John C. Nienstedt, the archbishop of St. Paul and Minneapolis, said in a statement Monday that he was resigning along with Auxiliary Bishop Lee Anthony Piché so as not to draw “attention away from the good works of His Church and those who perform them.”
Both announcements follow last week’s debut of a new church tribunal, which was created to investigate and potentially punish bishops engaged in covering up abuse.
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