VATICAN CITY
Catholic Culture
A Vatican spokesman has denied a report that the Holy See refused to extradite a Vatican diplomat who has been accused of sexual abuse, and revealed that the Vatican is conducting its own criminal investigation in the case.
Last week reports from Poland indicated that the Vatican had refused a request to extradite Archbishop Jozef Wesolowski, who has been accused of molesting young men both in his native Poland and in the Dominican Republic, where he served as apostolic nuncio until he was recalled to Rome last year. But Father Federico Lombardi, the director of the Vatican press office, told reporters that the Holy See had not received an extradition request. Polish officials had merely inquired about the archbishop’s legal status, the Vatican spokesman said; they had been informed that Archbishop Wesolowski is a citizen of Vatican City.
At the same time, he said that Archbishop Wesolowski is the subject of a canonical investigation, undertaken by the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith. As a Vatican citizen he could also be charged with criminal offenses under the Vatican’s penal code.
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