VATICAN CITY
CBC News
By Nicole Winfield, The Associated Press Posted: Aug 28, 2015
The Vatican’s former ambassador to the Dominican Republic, who had been charged by church prosecutors with sexually abusing children in the Caribbean country, died Friday of apparent natural causes as he awaited trial, the Vatican said.
Jozef Wesolowski, 67, was found dead early Friday in the Vatican room where he has been held on house arrest, a statement from the Vatican said.
Vatican officials immediately intervened and initial checks “indicated that the death was from natural causes,” a press statement said.
It said the Vatican prosecutor ordered an immediate autopsy and that Pope Francis was informed.
Wesolowski had been due to go on trial in a Vatican tribunal on July 11 for allegedly causing grave psychological harm to victims and possessing an enormous quantity of child pornography. But on the morning of the hearing, he was hospitalized in intensive care because of an unidentified “sudden illness.”
No new trial date was made public and the presiding judge had adjourned the trial indefinitely.
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