Action on nuncio welcomed in Dominican Republic

THE GOVERNMENT of the Dominican Republic has welcomed the news that a former Vatican nuncio accused of child abuse is to be laicised, adding that it will not seek his extradition.

Archbishop Jozef Wesolowski, who is Polish, allegedly sexually abused children while he was nuncio to the Dominican Republic. Last week the Vatican’s Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith announced that he would be laicised, though he has two months to appeal.

The President of the Dominican Republic Danilo Medina said he was satisfied with the outcome. “They have expelled him which is the maximum penalty in the Church. His Holiness [Pope Francis] promised me that this would happen and that he would not rest until it had been achieved,” said Mr Medina last week.

Complaints about Wesolowski were raised last August when the Archbishop of Santo Domingo, Cardinal Nicolás de Jesús López Rodríguez, reported to the Vatican that Wesolowski was accused of sexually abusing teenage boys. Wesolowski was recalled to Rome and has not worked as a priest since.

This week the Dominican Republic’s justice minister, Francisco Dominguez, said that Wesolowski could not be extradited. “That will not be possible because the Dominican Republic is a signatory to the Vienna Convention … the trial must be in the country that the ambassador was representing,” said Mr Dominguez.

Commenting on the case in Poland, the Archbishop of Warsaw, Cardinal Kazimierz Nycz, said last week: “Paedophilia is a sin, this is pure evil no matter who commits it. The Holy See decision only showed that nobody is above the law.”