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First senior cleric faces trial for paedophilia

A former papal ambassador to the Dominican Republic will be tried for paedophilia next month in the first case of its kind to be brought before a Vatican court.

Published: 15 June 2015 12:46 CEST
First senior cleric faces trial for paedophilia
A senior cleric will go on trial over paedophilia. Photo: Sneaker D/Flickr

The first hearing in the trial of Jozef Wesolowski has been scheduled for July 11th, the on Monday.

The Polish cleric is accused of possession of child pornography in Rome between 2013 and 14, and the sexual abuse of minors during his 2008 to 2013 spell as the Church's representative in the Dominican Republic.

Pope Francis has also accepted the resignation of two US bishops accused of failing to respond appropriately to allegations of sex abuse against a priest in the diocese of Saint Paul and Minneapolis, the Vatican said.

Archbishop John Clayton Nienstedt and Auxiliary Bishop Lee Anthony Piche resigned after the diocese was charged by US authorities of failing to protect minors in relation to a parish priest who was jailed for child abuse. 

More details to follow.

CATHOLIC CHURCH

At least 3,000 paedophiles active in French church since 1950: report

Thousands of paedophiles have operated inside the French Catholic Church since 1950, the head of an independent commission investigating the scandal told AFP, days ahead of the release of its report.

Published: 3 October 2021 09:16 CEST
French archbishop Cardinal Philippe Barbarin leads his last mass,on June 28, 2020. Barbarin was released on appeal on January 30 for his silence on the sexual abuse of a priest, and resigned quickly afterwards.
French archbishop Cardinal Philippe Barbarin leads his last mass,on June 28, 2020. Barbarin was released on appeal on January 30 for his silence on the sexual abuse of a priest, and resigned quickly afterwards. Photo: Jeff Pachoud/AFP

The commission’s research had uncovered between 2,900 and 3,200 paedophile priests or other members of the church, said Jean-Marc Sauve, adding that it was “a minimum estimate”.

The commission’s report is due to be released on Tuesday after two and a half years of research based on church, court and police archives, as well as interviews with witnesses.

The report, which Sauve said runs to 2,500 pages, will attempt to quantify both the number of offenders and the number of victims.

It will also look into “the mechanisms, notably institutional and cultural ones” within the Church which allowed paedophiles to remain, and will offer 45 proposals.

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The independent commission was set up in 2018 by the French Catholic Church in response to a number of scandals that shook the Church in France and worldwide.

Its formation also came after Pope Francis passed a landmark measure obliging those who know about sex abuse in the Catholic Church to report it to their superiors.

Made up of 22 legal professionals, doctors, historians, sociologists and theologians, its brief was to investigate allegations of child sex abuse by clerics dating back to the 1950s.

When it began its work it called for witness statements and set up a telephone hotline, then reported receiving thousands of messages in the months that followed.

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