VATICAN CITY
Associated Press
October 14, 2020
By Nicole Winfield
A trial opened Wednesday in the Vatican’s criminal tribunal for two priests, one accused of sexually abusing an altar boy in the Vatican’s youth seminary and the other of covering it up.
The charges read aloud in the courtroom marked the first time the Vatican had publicly detailed its case against the two men, one of whom was himself a young seminarian at the time of the alleged abuse, 2007-2012, while the other was the then-seminary rector.
The case concerns the closed world of the St. Pius X youth seminary, a palazzo inside the Vatican walls just across the street from where Pope Francis lives and the criminal tribunal itself. The seminary, which is run by a Como, Italy-based religious association, serves as a residence for boys aged 12 to 18, who serve as altar boys at papal Masses in St. Peter’s Basilica.
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