The Papal Nuncio to the Dominican Republic, Jozef Wesolowski, is pictured above.
The latest
pedophile scandal involving the Roman Catholic Church raises a distressingly
familiar question: is the Church fighting to end sexual abuse by its priests,
or still trying to avoid responsibility? Even worse, from the Church’s
perspective, the current outrage calls into question the personal ethics of
Pope Francis, whose popularity with rank-and-file Catholics and with the faith
community generally is in the same league with that of John XXIII or John-Paul
II.
Pope Francis is popular for the excellent reason that “humble” and
“frugal” have not been common words to describe those who have occupied the
throne of St. Peter, and this Pope has made very public efforts to emulate the
life of a carpenter’s son rather than a life of royal privilege. Still, the
Pope has personal representatives and many of them are accustomed to royal
privileges.
The Papal Nuncio
to the Dominican Republic, Jozef Wesolowski, came to the attention of
prosecutors when Nuria Piera, General Director ofCadena
de Noticias(CDN), a television station owned by the principal
newspaper in Santo Domingo,El
Caribe,sent a camera crew to chase down rumors that the nuncio had
been luring boys to the beach house (a perk of his office) to engage in sex for
money. According toThe New York Times, Wesolowski caught the reporters
following him and quit cruising for boys on the beach. Instead, he sent a
Church deacon, Francisco Reyes, to pander for His Excellency.
(A Papal Nuncio does not represent the city-state of Vatican City. He
[always “he”] represents the Holy See, and its personification, the Pope. Each
nuncio is personally selected by the Pope and, in Catholic countries, the
nuncio is senior in diplomatic protocol to secular ambassadors. Even in
non-Catholic countries, the nuncio has all the privileges and immunities of
other ambassadors because the Holy See is a signatory to the Vienna Convention
on Diplomatic Relations.)
Reverend Mr. Reyes got arrested for solicitation of a minor on June 24,
2013. When nobody from the Church appeared promptly to bail him out, he
squealed and named names of alleged child molesters in a letter written on July
2 to, among others, Cardinal Nicolas de Jesus López Rodriguez, who flew to the
Vatican and presented the evidence directly to Pope Francis.
The Pope then
quietly recalled his nuncio on August 21 without informing Dominican
authorities of either the allegations or the recall, spiriting His Excellency
Jozef Wesolowski out of the Dominican Republic just ahead of an investigation
of numerous counts of child sexual abuse, which began in early September when
CDN ran Ms. Piera’s reports. Only then, did the Church announce that Pope
Francis had recalled his nuncio. The Vatican then invoked diplomatic immunity
to keep the nuncio from being tried for his crimes in the Dominican Republic.
AfterThe New York Timesreported the story in August of this
year, the Vatican reversed course and stripped Wesolowski’s diplomatic
immunity, but hedged the decision in a way that sends mixed messages.
The Associated Press reported that Rev. Federico Lombardi, speaking for
the Vatican, said that in light of the loss of diplomatic immunity, the former
nuncio “might also be subjected to judicial procedures from the courts that
could have specific jurisdiction over him.” Of course, the Dominican courts
have no jurisdiction (because Wesolowski is not a citizen) unless the Vatican
honors an extradition request, which can be obstructed by the Church at both
ends, in the Dominican Republic and in Vatican City.
Many countries, moreover, will not extradite for conduct that is not
criminal in the sanctuary state, either because the extradition treaty says so
or because the courts say so. Child sexual abuse was apparently not a crime in
Vatican City when Wesolowski was allegedly an active pedophile.
Wesolowski has
been defrocked (a sanction currently on appeal in the canonical courts) and the
Church claims he will face criminal charges under Vatican City law. This claim
seems unlikely because to prosecute for conduct before it was made illegal
would violate the bedrock principle of every civilized legal system,nullum poena sine lege(no punishment without law).
Should
lawyer-Latin not translate to Church-Latin, there’s been no announcement of how
many alleged victims will be flown in to testify or whether the former nuncio
will be incarcerated pending trial.The
New York Timesreported that Victor Masalles, a Dominican bishop,
claimed that he saw Wesolowski free on the streets of Vatican City on a June
visit.
The Dominican Republic did not initially make an issue of the Church’s
claim of diplomatic immunity. Prosecutors in Poland, where Wesolowski holds
dual citizenship with Vatican City, did. Poland is prosecuting another priest
for child sexual abuse in the Dominican Republic, Rev. Wojciech Gil, and
Dominican prosecutors claim that Father Gil molested young boys at the nuncio’s
beach house with Wesolowski present and participating. Depending on Polish law,
Poland may not need Wesoloski’s physical presence to assert jurisdiction, but
they will to punish him.
Most of the priesthood’s sexual abuse of children and subsequent
cover-up happened before Pope Francis began his reign. This case, where the
allegation is that Francis made a decision that directly contradicts the “new” Church
policy to report pedophile priests to secular criminal justice authorities,
will be a public test of the Pope’s determination to clean up the mess he
inherited.
No comments:
Post a Comment