The Vatican laicized Jozef Wesolowski, the former nuncio to the Dominican Republic, for having sex with minors earlier this year. Now, they’ve put him on house arrest.
From Catholic News Agency:
.- The Holy See press officer announced Tuesday that Jozef Wesolowski, the former apostolic nuncio to the Dominican Republic who was laicized earlier this year, has been put under house arrest amid an official investigation into charges of pedophilia.
He is accused of having paid for sex with minors while nuncio to the Dominican Republic.
“The seriousness of the allegations has prompted the official investigation to impose a restrictive measure that … consists of house arrest, with its related limitations, in a location within the Vatican City State,” Fr. Federico Lombardi, S.J., said Sept. 23.
“The initiative taken by the judicial departments of Vatican City State is a result of the express desire of the Pope, so that a case so serious and delicate would be addressed without delay, with just and necessary rigor, and with full assumption of responsibility on the part of the institutions that are governed by the Holy See.”
Wesolowski, 66, has been placed under house arrest, rather than being jailed in Vatican City’s prison, due to his health condition.
The Pope has also dismissed a Paraquayan bishop accused of protecting a priest suspected of sexually abusing young people.
From Reuters:
(Reuters) – Pope Francis has dismissed a Paraguayan bishop accused of protecting a priest suspected of sexually abusing young people, the Vatican said on Thursday.
A statement said the pope had removed Bishop Rogelio Ricardo Livieres Plano from his post as head of the diocese of Ciudad del Este and named another bishop to run it as an administrator for the time being.
The sacking followed a Vatican investigation of the bishop, the diocese and its seminaries, said the statement, which gave no details.
Vatican sources said the bishop had refused to resign after the investigation and reports of irregularities in his diocese and clashes between the conservative Livieres Plano and other bishops in the country.
The Argentinian-born pontiff has vowed zero tolerance of clerics who abuse minors, after church scandals in several countries over many years. Last May, Francis called such abuse an “ugly crime” and likened it to “a Satanic mass”.
This is how these things should have been handled all along. What a difference it would have made if they had been.
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