VATICAN CITY
The Guardian
Stephanie Kirchgaessner in Rome
Saturday 11 July 2015
The former Vatican diplomat Józef Wesołowski has been taken to hospital with an “unexpected illness” on the opening day of his trial for alleged child sex abuse.
The development, announced in a Vatican bulletin, has delayed the first trial inside the Holy See of a senior official on charges of paedophilia and possession of child pornography.
The Vatican said the hearing at the state tribunal had started on Saturday morning when the promoter of justice announced that the former nuncio to the Dominican Republic had been admitted to intensive care at an unnamed public hospital with an “unexpected illness”. The trial was suspended and postponed until a later date, yet to be announced.
No further details of Wesolowski’s medical condition were given.
The trial is seen as a test of Pope Francis’s commitment to tackling the church’s legacy of sexual violence against children. It is the first time the church has used the criminal justice system Francis put in place to handle cases of alleged clerical wrongdoing.
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