Ex-Vatican envoy defrocked for sex abuse: First time in history

VATICAN CITY – The Vatican's former ambassador to the Dominican Republic has been convicted of sex abuse by a church tribunal and defrocked pending further criminal proceedings in the first case of its kind.

Polish archbishop Jozef Wesolowski, who was recalled to Rome last year amid claims that he sexually abused a number of children in the slums of Santo Domingo, was found guilty by the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, the Vatican said on Friday.

It is the first time that a Vatican ambassador has been defrocked for sexual abuse. Wesolowski, who has two months to appeal, was slapped with the severest punishment possible for a cleric and told he can no longer perform priestly duties.

Once his canonical conviction is definitive he will have to face the Vatican City's criminal tribunal, which could sentence him to prison in what would be the first such trial for sex abuse within the tiny city state.

The conviction came 6 months after the UN's child rights watchdog highlighted Wesolowski's case as an example of the Vatican's failure to take concrete actions to prove its commitment to stamp out the abuse of minors by priests....

AFP completely blows the story.

First, Wesolowski is not an ambassador. He is a nuncio. Ambassadors are diplomats TO governments. A nuncio is the Vatican’s eyes and ears.

Second, what makes Wesolowski’s case so dramatic is NOT that he’s an archbishop; archbishops have been defrocked before. Rather, it’s that he’s a citizen of the Vatican City-State, who will now face criminal proceedings under the City-State’s law. Contrarily, Cardinal Law works in ROME, ITALY, not the City-State.

Wesolowski was withdrawn to the Vatican before there were ANY complaints made public, any press coverage, or any action by local law enforcement; local investigations were only triggered by the announcements of the Dominican church that the church had received complaints. The City-State and the Dominican Republic investigations cooperated on criminal matters.

Of course, the press coverage was reprehensible; a comment that Wesolowski was a Vatican citizen, and no extradition treat exists between Poland and the Vatican had the press presuming falsely that the Vatican refused extradition to Poland; Poland has no record of crimes. Worse, they blew up the Cardinal Law case again; Cardinal Law is not IN the Vatican, but Italy, and can be extradited at any time, but has never been accused of any criminal offense.

In nearly all these cases, I point out that they’re decades old, and that “cover-ups” were stemming from the American Catholic Church’s misplaced and immoral reliance on the prevailing secular practices of therapists and lawyers. This is a far more recent incident, but where;s the alleged cover-up? The Vatican announced the investigation immediately with a national press release from the head of the national church, and has cooperated with DR LEOs.

The United Nations attack on Catholicism explicitly referred to Wesolowski’s case as an example of “systemic violation of human rights.” Wesolowski certainly violated human rights of his victims, but where’s the “systemic?”

Peter’s Confession about Jesus.*
13
h When Jesus went into the region of Caesarea Philippi* he asked his disciples, “Who do people say that the Son of Man is?”
14
i They replied, “Some say John the Baptist,* others Elijah, still others Jeremiah or one of the prophets.”
15
He said to them, “But who do you say that I am?”
16
* j Simon Peter said in reply, “You are the Messiah, the Son of the living God.”
17
Jesus said to him in reply, “Blessed are you, Simon son of Jonah. For flesh and blood* has not revealed this to you, but my heavenly Father.
18
k And so I say to you, you are Peter, and upon this rock I will build my church,* and the gates of the netherworld shall not prevail against it.
19
l I will give you the keys to the kingdom of heaven.* Whatever you bind on earth shall be bound in heaven; and whatever you loose on earth shall be loosed in heaven.”
20
* m Then he strictly ordered his disciples to tell no one that he was the Messiah.

This is St. Peters Church your talking about. You go ahead and say what you want, but I’ll hold my tongue.

This is pretty big. In the past, bishops and archbishops have been accused of perpetrating a cover-up. Here's an archbishop guilty of the crimes themselves, and a nucio no less.

I'd be interested to know the archbishop's age, where he studied, with whom and under whom, who is his mentor, etc. There is without question a network within church universal that promotes men like Wesolowski.

Deo volente, that network must be extirpated root and branch.

There definitely is rot, and Pope Francis is not nearly intelligent enough to do anything about it. Pope Benedict will join Pope John Paul as a saint, but Francis just ... meh,

The apostolic nuncio to the US who placed all of the terrible bishops (Jean Jadot), including the Satan-worshipping Cardinal Bernadin, actually said he was proud of his picks, and he added this was IN SPITE OF THE HORRIBLE THINGS THEY DID.

John Paul let some lemons through because the communist party used lies about sex abuse as a way of going after their enemies. But at the same time, he did a brilliant job of connecting orthodoxy, orthopraxis and integrity. (Yes, he made some errors regarding orthopraxis, but the mess he was cleaning up was unbelievable.) Given that this guy was Polish, I’m guessing he slipped past JP’s radar.

Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.