Former nuncio's arrest shows Pope's determination to fight abuse, says papal spokesman

September 24, 2014

The arrest of laicized Archbishop Josef Wesolowski by Vatican police reflects the determination of Pope Francis to be aggressive in handling sex-abuse charges, the Vatican’s spokesman has observed.

In a public statement released on September 24, after the arrest of the former papal nuncio, Father Federico Lombardi, the director of the Vatican press office, said that the arrest “is consistent with the wish expressed by the Pope that such a serious and delicate case be addressed without delay, with the just and necessary rigor, with the full assumption of responsibility on the part of the institutions governed by the Holy See.”

The papal spokesman confirmed that Wesolowski—who was stripped of his clerical status after a canonical trial by the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith—is now under house arrest within the confines of the Vatican. He explained that the former archbishop was granted a request for house arrest, rather than confinement in a small holding cell in the Vatican police headquarters, “in view of the state of health of the accused, attested to by medical documentation.”

 

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Further information:

• Vatican City State legal authorities order house arrest for ex-nuncio Jozef Wesolowski (VIS)
• Vatican police arrest former papal nuncio, will prosecute on sex-abuse charges (CWN, 9/23)