You Might Like
Former archbishop dies ahead of standing in Vatican’s first child abuse trial
A former Polish archbishop due to go on trial for child sex offences has died overnight, a Vatican source has announced.
Jozef Wesolowski was found dead in the early hours of the morning of 28 August; he is thought to have died of natural causes.
He was accused of sexually abusing an undisclosed number of boys, all of whom are presumed to be between 13 and 16 years old, with at least one case of abuse taking place in public.
According to the Vatican, the former envoy to the Dominican Republic was also accused of owning child porn; he was ordered by the papal state to stand trial in June 2015.
After Dominican media reported in 2013 how Wesolowski would dress casually and visit a beachfront area frequented by child prostitutes, which led to a police investigation, the former archbishop was recalled to Rome.
Upon his return he was stripped of all his duties and, in 2014, put under modified house arrest.
As a reaction to the growing number of priests being accused of sexually abusing children in their care, Pope Francis had promised a zero-tolerance approach to such accusations and rewrote Church rules to allow Wesolowski’s trial to take place.
Wesolowski’s case would have been the first of its kind, and involving a high-ranking Catholic official, to be brought before a Vatican court.
The post Former archbishop dies ahead of standing in Vatican’s first child abuse trial appeared first on Gay Star News.
Stefanie Gerdes
You Might Like
