Vatican puts pedophile ex-priest under house arrest

Press TV (Iran)
September 24, 2014

http://www.presstv.ir/detail/2014/09/24/379793/pedophile-priest-put-under-house-arrest/

The former Catholic Church ambassador, Josef Wesolowski, was recalled from his post as envoy to the Dominican Republic last year after local media accused him of pedophilia. In June, he was found guilty by a church disciplinary panel and deemed no longer fit to serve as a priest.

Vatican spokesman Federico Lombardi said Pope Francis had personally ordered swift action in his case.

Lombardi said the legal move was "the result of the pope's express wish for a case this serious and sensitive to be dealt with without delay, with the necessary scrupulousness and full undertaking of responsibility on the part of the institutions which head up the Holy See."

The Catholic Church has been tarnished in recent years by worldwide revelations about pedophile priests, and by allegations that for decades its hierarchy failed to punish offenders or even covered up their crimes.