The Vatican has placed its former ambassador to the Dominican Republic, Jozef Wesolowski, under house arrest on charges of sexually abusing children.<\/p>\n
The former archbishop was defrocked in June after a Church tribunal found him guilty of abusing Dominican boys.<\/p>\n
He will now be tried by a Vatican criminal court, becoming its highest official to face abuse charges there.<\/p>\n
Wesolowski, who is originally from Poland, served as a papal envoy to the Dominican Republic for five years.<\/p>\n
A Vatican spokesman said the arrest reflected Pope Francis’s wish “that such a grave and delicate case be handled without delay, with the just and necessary rigour”.<\/p>\n
Pope Francis has pledged a crackdown on clerics and employees of the Church who exploit minors, comparing their actions to a “satanic mass”.<\/p>\n
Last year, he strengthened the Vatican’s laws against child abuse.<\/p>\n
The Vatican spokesman said the decision to place Wesolowski under house arrest, rather than hold him in a police cell, was taken on account of his health.<\/p>\n
Wesolowski is expected to go on trial later this year.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Source: BBC<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
The Vatican has placed its former ambassador to the Dominican Republic, Jozef Wesolowski, under house arrest on charges of sexually abusing children. The former archbishop was defrocked in June after a Church tribunal found him guilty of abusing Dominican boys. He will now be tried by a Vatican criminal court, becoming its highest official to […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":14,"featured_media":50521,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[],"tags":[14],"yoast_head":"\n