Poland Examines Dominican Republic Child Sex Abuse Allegation Files

The News
November 7, 2013

http://www.thenews.pl/1/10/Artykul/152251,Poland-receives-paedophilia-files-from-Dominican-Republic

“A cursory look at them has confirmed that they will be of value in the case, as we had hoped,” said Maciej Kujawski, spokesman for the attorney general.

The 650 documents have been passed on to the district prosecutor's office in Warsaw, but the office has declined to reveal whether any extradition request has been made.

“All the documents are in Spanish, and we cannot refer to their contents until the translation has been carried out,” said Przemyslaw Nowak, spokesman for the office.

At present, Poland has no extradition agreement with the Caribbean republic.

Father Wojciech Gil, who in recent months has been staying with family in a village near Krakow, stands accused of sexually abusing at least seven boys while he headed a parish in the highland town of Juncalito.

Archbishop Jozef Wesolowski, former Vatican nuncio in the Dominican Republic, faces similar accusations, although his current whereabouts are unknown.

As a Vatican ambassador, Archbishop Wesolowski possessed diplomatic immunity, although he has already been replaced in his post, after being recalled by the Vatican in August.

The Vatican is carrying out its own investigation.

A spokesman for the Vatican said in early September that “the recall of the nuncio is by no means an effort to avoid taking responsibility for what might possibly be verified.”

Pope Francis had himself declared in April that the Roman Catholic Church must “act decisively” to punish paedophile priests, and that this is needed “for the church and its credibility.”

Francisco Dominguez Brito, the Dominican Republic's attorney general, said in late October when the files were sent that “the guilty must bear responsibilty.

“What has happened is inexcusable,” he added, stressing that he wanted charges to be made “as quickly as possible.”

Broken homes

Meanwhile another Polish cleric has claimed that broken homes are a catalyst for paedophilia.

Father Ireneusz Bochynski, from the city of Piotrkow Trybunalski in Central Poland, has said he knows of 10-year-old children who “went to bed with adults, wanting to be fulfilled, and it was the choice of the child.”

Father Bochynski insisted that “now that we have so many broken marriages, where most often there is a lack of a father, it will happen more and more often that children without such figures will cling on to men.”

His controversial remarks echo those of head of the Polish Episcopate Archbishop Jozef Michalik, who claimed that children involved in paedophilia cases were often “searching for love” as they came from broken homes. (nh/pg)