A former papal ambassador to the Dominican Republic is to be put on trial on child sex abuse charges.
Ex-Archbishop Jozef Wesolowski was arrested on paedophilia charges inside the Vatican city last year. The pole was defrocked a year ago on charges of abusing Dominican boys while he was the Vatican’s envoy to the Dominican Republic for five years. He has been living under house arrest in a Vatican city apartment since his arrest.
The 66-year-old Wesolowski, is also to stand trial on child pornography charges dating from his return to Rome in 2013. He was the first ever archbishop to be arrested inside the Vatican City on charges of paedophilia. Pope Francis has also accepted the resignations of a U.S. archbishop and his deputy, for failing to act over accusations of child abuse regarding a priest in Minnesota.
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The BBC reports:
Jozef Wesolowski is accused of having sexually abused children in the Dominican Republic in 2008-2013. He is under house arrest in the Vatican.
The trial is to begin on 11 July.
He is also charged with possession of child pornography, dating from his return to Rome in 2013.
Wesolowski, 66, was recalled from the Dominican Republic in 2013, after allegations surfaced accusing him of abusing Dominican boys.
He had spent five years in the Caribbean country as the papal envoy.
He was defrocked in June last year after he was found guilty by a Church tribunal. He will now be tried by a Vatican criminal court.
