Vatican to hold first trial of senior cleric for paedophilia

Straits Times
June 15, 2015

http://www.straitstimes.com/news/world/europe/story/vatican-hold-first-trial-senior-cleric-paedophilia-20150615

VATICAN CITY (AFP) - A former papal ambassador to the Dominican Republic will be tried for paedophilia next month, in the first case of its kind to be brought before a Vatican court.

The first hearing in the trial of Jozef Wesolowski has been scheduled for July 11, 2015, the Vatican announced on Monday. The Polish cleric is accused of possession of child pornography in Rome in 2013-2914 and the sexual abuse of minors during his 2008-2013 spell as the Church's representative in the Dominican Republic.

Separately, Pope Francis accepted the resignations of two United States bishops accused of failing to respond appropriately to allegations of sex abuse against a priest in the diocese of Saint Paul and Minneapolis, the Vatican announced on Monday.

Archbishop John Clayton Nienstedt and Auxiliary Bishop Lee Anthony Piche resigned after the diocese was charged by US authorities of failing to protect minors in relation to a parish priest who was jailed for child abuse.