The Vatican has its own courts, and will try Jozef Wesolowski there.
He is the most important Vatican official to be accused of child abuse to dateJozef Wesolowski, the first important Vatican official to be charged with paedophilia, is
set to stand trial in a Holy See court tomorrow.
The former Polish archbishop was the papal envoy to the Dominican Republic for five years. In 2013, accusations emerged that he was involved in child abuse there, and an investigation was launched by both Dominican and Vatican authorities.
A Vatican criminal hearing opened in September last year, shortly before which he had been laicised - the Catholic term for defrocking, that forbade him from doing his ministerial work.
He was indicted by a Vatican prosecutor last month, with the trial date set for tomorrow. Wesolowski denies all the charges.
His diplomatic immunity has also been revoked, which meant that he could potentially have been tried in the Domincan Republic - however, as a city-state, the Vatican has its own courts, and will try him there.
The maximum penalty Vatican courts could previously give was life imprisonment, but this was abolished by Pope Francis shortly after he became Pope. Wesolowski could now face the maximum penalty of 30 to 35 years in prison.
It is alleged that Wesolowski paid teenage boys for sex while living in the Dominican Republic. An alleged victim
told the
New York Times last year that he would trawl the streets, offering poor shoeshine boys large sums of money for sex.
Comment: This pope has the pulse on the regular people and hopefully the people will listen and act accordingly.