Former archbishop in hospital ahead of Vatican paedophilia trial

VATICAN CITY: A former Polish archbishop became ill and was placed in intensive care ahead of the opening of his unprecedented trial on paedophilia charges at the Vatican, officials said yesterday.

Jozef Wesolowski is accused of sexually abusing minors during his 2008-13 stint as Vatican ambassador to the Dominican Republic and of possessing child pornography in Rome in 2013-14.

His case is seen as a test of Pope Francis’ push to prosecute sexual predators in the face of accusations that the Catholic Church has not done enough to identify and punish paedophiles in its midst.

Mr Wesolowski “was taken ill and was taken to a … hospital where he was placed in intensive care”, prosecutor Gian Piero Milano told the court, with Vatican officials saying that the former cleric became sick on Friday. The judge recessed the trial until a later, unspecified date.

When t he trial reconvenes, Mr Wesolowski’s lawyers may motion for it to continue in closed session.

His trial marks the first legal proceedings against a church official since Pope Francis overhauled the Vatican justice system in response to swelling accusations of child sexual abuse by prelates.

If Mr Wesolowski is convicted in the trial, in which the judge, defence lawyer and prosecutors are all Italian lay people, he could face a six-year prison term — more if aggravated circumstances are found — which he could serve in Vatican detention facilities.

Mr Wesolowski was secretly recalled from his post in the Dominican Republic in 2012 after the Church hierarchy was advised he had been regularly paying young Dominican boys for sexual services

The case marks the first time a Vatican court will hear child sexual abuse charges against a former Church official.