Bishop Criticizes Vatican over Accused Abusive Archbishop

SNAP
June 24, 2014

http://www.snapnetwork.org/rome_bishop_criticizes_vatican_over_accused_abusive_archbishop

In a rare "split in the ranks," a bishop says that Vatican officials have "injured the people of God" by their "silence" over former Vatican envoy Archbishop Jozef Wesolowski, who is accused of sexually abusing boys in Dominican Republic.

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Santo Domingo Archdiocese Auxiliary Bishop Victor Masalles admitted yesterday that he saw Wesolowski walking free in Rome. Vatican staff are refusing to extradite Wesolowski to Poland where law enforcement authorities want to question him for his alleged child sex crimes.

In our view, it's incredibly irresponsible for Catholic officials to thwart a police investigation. But it's also incredibly irresponsible for them to let a credibly accused child molesting cleric live in the figurative and literal center of Catholicism evidently with no supervision.

Consider these three simple facts. It takes seconds to molest a child. Millions of tourists and their families visit Rome annually. Most of them respect and trust clerics. Only a tiny handful of them know who Wesolowski is. He likely still dresses as an archbishop.

That combination is a child molesting cleric's dream. Knowing that he faces potential criminal prosecution and imprisonment, this looks like a recipe for re-offense.

If not for self-serving Vatican intervention, Wesolowski would likely be behind bars now. The least Vatican officials can do is to put him in a remote, secure, independently-run treatment center where he'll be kept away from kids. Anything less dramatically increases the chances that Wesolowski will assault another innocent child.