VATICAN CITY
BT
The Vatican’s former ambassador to the Dominican Republic, who had been charged with sexually abusing children in the Caribbean country, has died as he awaited trial.
Jozef Wesolowski, 67, was found dead in the Vatican room where he has been held on house arrest, according to a statement from the Vatican.
Initial checks “indicated that the death was from natural causes”, a press statement said.
It said the Vatican prosecutor ordered an immediate post-mortem 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 child pornography.
But on the morning of the hearing, he was admitted to 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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