VATICAN CITY
The Independent (UK)
DOUG BOLTON Friday 10 July 2015
Jozef Wesolowski, the first important Vatican official to be charged with paedophilia, is set to stand trial in a Holy See court tomorrow.
The former Polish archbishop was the papal envoy to the Dominican Republic for five years. In 2013, accusations emerged that he was involved in child abuse there, and an investigation was launched by both Dominican and Vatican authorities.
A Vatican criminal hearing opened in September last year, shortly before which he had been laicised – the Catholic term for defrocking, that forbade him from doing his ministerial work.
His diplomatic immunity has also been revoked, which meant that he could potentially have been tried in the Domincan Republic – however, as a city-state, the Vatican has its own courts, and will try him there.
The maximum penalty Vatican courts could previously give was life imprisonment, but this was abolished by Pope Francis shortly after he became Pope. Wesolowski could now face the maximum penalty of 30 to 35 years in prison.
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