Former Nuncio Receiving Medical Attention at Vatican

Trial of Josef Wesolowski Postponed for Later Date

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After being discharged last Friday from the hospital where he was recovering, Josef Wesolowski, the former Apostolic Nuncio to the Dominican Republic, is back at the Vatican. According to the Holy See Press Office, the former nuncio is in the residence of the College of Penitentiaries, “under medical care”. The Holy See specified that Wesolowski, who stands accused of pedophilia and possession of child pornography, was hospitalized because of “a serious drop in blood pressure, due to the heat and tension, as well as his age.”

Wesolowski’s trial was set to begin on July 11th but it was suspended after only six minutes, due to the sudden indisposition of the accused, who had also promised to be present.

Three criminal charges weigh upon the Archbishop, who now faces six to seven years of detention:

  1. Acquisition via the Internet of child pornography, representing minors under 18, in more or less explicit obscene poses.

  2. Sexual abuse of boys between the ages of 13 and 16, in one case perpetrated in complicity with one of his collaborators, the former deacon Francisco Javier Occi Reyes.

  3. Receiving stolen goods, for having acquired, received and hidden the pornographic material in question.

  4. Grave psychological damages of the adolescent victims of the abuses.

5. Offense to religion and to Christian morality, for having accessed child pornography websites also during his stay in Rome.

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