Mags GarganVatican recalled the diplomat from his post last summer
The Vatican has denied covering up for a former papal ambassador accused of sexually abusing boys and suggested he might have to stand trial on the charges in the Dominican Republic.
Jesuit Fr Federico Lombardi, the Vatican spokesman, released a statement this week in response to journalists’ questions about former Archbishop Jozef Wesolowski, a Pole who served as nuncio to the Dominican Republic until August 2013.
According to an August 23 article in The New York Times, the Vatican “secretly recalled (Wesolowski) to Rome last year before he could be investigated, and then invoked diplomatic immunity for Mr Wesolowski so that he could not face trial in the Dominican Republic”.
Diplomatic
Fr Lombardi responded that the Vatican, by recalling the diplomat from his post last summer, “moved without delay and correctly in light of the fact that former nuncio Wesolowski held the position of a diplomatic representative of the Holy See”.
“Far from any intention of a cover-up, this action demonstrates the full and direct undertaking of the Holy See’s responsibility even in such a serious and delicate case, about which Pope Francis is duly and carefully informed and one which the Pope wishes to address justly and rigorously,” the statement said.
The spokesman added that, “since former nuncio Wesolowski has ended all diplomatic activity and its related immunity, he might also be subjected to judicial procedures from the courts that could have specific jurisdiction over him”.
Dismissed
The Vatican announced in June that a canonical court had investigated Wesolowski on charges of sex abuse and concluded by dismissing him from the clerical state, depriving him of all rights and duties associated with being a priest except the obligation of celibacy. Wesolowski would face a criminal trial under the laws of Vatican City State, the Vatican said at the time.
Wesolowski appealed the decision, which the Vatican said would be judged in October and criminal proceedings will ensue “as soon as the canonical sentence becomes definitive”.