VATICAN CITY, (Reuters) – A former Polish archbishop and papal diplomat who was defrocked after allegations of paying children for sexual acts has lost his diplomatic immunity and could be tried in the Domini-can Republic, the Vatican said.
In a statement late on Monday, Vatican spokesman Father Federico Lombardi also denied that the Vatican, by recalling Jozef Wesolowski to Rome last year when he was still a diplomat in Santo Domingo, had tried to cover up the case.
Lombardi, whose statement followed a detailed report on the Wesolowski case this week in The New York Times, said the 66-year-old former archbishop no longer had immunity and “might also be subjected to judicial procedures from the courts that could have specific jurisdiction over him”.
Wesolowski is being investigated in the Dominican Republic, where he served as nuncio, or ambassador, over accusations of paying boys to perform sexual acts.
Last June, a Vatican tribunal defrocked the former archbishop, meaning he was reduced to the status of a layman and can no longer be a minister.
He is now due to undergo a separate, criminal trial in Vatican City, the first time the Vatican will hold such a trial on those charges in its own territory. Wesolowski could face up to 12 years in jail.
Lombardi said Wesolowski was appealing against the defrocking and that another canonical hearing would take place in the next few weeks. After that, the criminal proceedings against him in the Vatican “will continue as soon as the canonical sentence becomes definitive,” he said.