Child abuse trial to begin in Vatican in landmark case

VATICAN CITY
Telegraph

By Nick Squires, Rome 10 Jul 2015

The former Vatican ambassador to the Dominican Republic will go on trial on Saturday in the Holy See charged with paying for sex with minors, in an unprecedented test of Pope Francis’s determination to tackle sex abuse by clergy.

Jozef Wesolowski, 66, from Poland, is accused of giving money to street children in exchange for sexual acts while serving as the Vatican’s nuncio, or ambassador, to the Caribbean country

“He seduced me with money,” a shoeshine boy who was 14 when he was abused by the archbishop, told The New York Times. “I felt very bad. I knew it wasn’t the right thing to do, but I needed the money.”

The landmark trial opens as Pope Francis conducts a three-country tour of his home continent of South America, visiting Bolivia, Ecuador and Paraguay.

It will take place in a Vatican tribunal inside the tiny city state, where Wesolowski faces charges of sexual abuse of minors and possession of child pornography on his computer. …

His trial is expected to conclude early next year.

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