Vatican Sets Trial for Ex-ambassador Accused of Sexual Abuse

By Laurie Goodstein
New York Times
June 15, 2015

http://www.nytimes.com/2015/06/16/world/europe/vatican-sets-trial-for-ex-ambassador-accused-of-sexual-abuse.html?_r=0

The Vatican announced on Monday that in July it will open a trial of its former ambassador to the Dominican Republic on charges of sexually abusing boys while serving in the Caribbean and of possessing child pornography.

The case of the former envoy and archbishop, Jozef Wesolowski, caused an international scandal when it was learned that the Vatican had secretly recalled him from Santo Domingo, the Dominican capital, before officials in the Caribbean nation could investigate. The Vatican said he could not be tried in the Dominican Republic because he had diplomatic immunity.

Mr. Wesolowski came to the attention of the Dominican authorities after a television journalist aired an investigation reporting that the ambassador had a habit of picking up shoeshine boys along the waterfront and taking them to secluded spots. Some boys said he had given them money to molest them.

The former ambassador was defrocked by the Vatican last June and has been awaiting a criminal trial by the Vatican since then. It will be the first trial on sexual abuse charges held under new rules for criminal procedures put in place by Pope Francis.

Jozef Wesolowski Credit Manuel Diaz/Associated Press

It was not known until Monday that the Vatican would also bring child pornography charges against the former ambassador.

The Vatican said in announcing the trial that these were “serious charges” and that it would be a “delicate and detailed procedure.” It is set to begin on July 11.

A Vatican spokesman, the Rev. Ciro Benedettini, said Vatican officials had found child pornography on the former ambassador’s computer and dated it to Mr. Wesolowski’s time in the Dominican Republic.

After years in which survivors have demanded that bishops be held accountable, the Vatican appears to be trying to demonstrate that the church is listening, at least in some cases. The date of Mr. Wesolowski’s trial was announced on the same day as the resignation of the archbishop of St. Paul and Minneapolis, whose archdiocese was recently indicted on charges of mishandling sexual abuse by a priest.

Last week, the Vatican announced that it was creating a new tribunal to judge bishops accused of covering up or mishandling accusations of sexual abuse in their dioceses.

The Vatican’s chief spokesman, the Rev. Federico Lombardi, said the trial would be held inside Vatican City, in the room that the tribunal uses. The judges will be drawn from the same pool as those who heard the case against a Vatican butler, Paolo Gabriele, who was charged with leaking private papers belonging to Pope Benedict XVI to the media, he said.

Father Lombardi said that testimony gathered in the Dominican Republic would be presented at the trial, but that he doubted witnesses would be flown to Rome for the proceedings.

Father Benedettini said it was “pure coincidence” that the archbishop of St. Paul and Minneapolis resigned on the same day as the announcement of the Wesolowski trial. He said it had taken so long to set a trial date because the investigation was “complex” and done in multiple countries.

“It takes time to verify and check,” he said.

Vatican officials had suggested that the criminal trial would begin in the winter or early spring, and gave no reasons for the delay.

Prosecutors in Poland, where Mr. Wesolowski is originally from, have said that they were also interested in bringing a case against him, but that they did not have the cooperation of the Vatican or information from Dominican officials.