Jozef Wesolowski was a former papal envoy to the Dominican Republic who went on trial during the summer for alleged sexual abuse of minors. The trial was an opportunity for Pope Francis to show that he is carrying out pledges to punish high-ranking churchmen accused of sexual offences or covering up abuse.
Wesolowski never set foot in the tiny courtroom for the trial, held in the building where he was living. On the eve of the trial's opening, he was taken to hospital with what the Vatican described as “a sudden illness”. He appears to have died of a heart attack.
But before the trial was adjourned for Wesolowski's illness, the court clerk's reading aloud of the charges gave a vivid idea of the case's gravity. Prosecutors alleged that Wesolowski “corrupted, through lewd acts, adolescents presumed to be between 13 and 16 years old, in order to carry out on them, and in their presence, sexual acts”.
Wesolowski was born in Poland in 1948, and was ordained in 1972 by Cardinal Karol Wojtyla, the future Pope John Paul II. He was appointed as nuncio to Bolivia in 1999 and in 2000 was consecrated as Titular Archbishop of Slebte by Pope John Paul. He was subsequently nuncio to Kazakhstan, Tajikistan, Kyrgyzstan and Uzbekistan, before taking up the same post in the Dominican Republic in 2008.
In 2013, Wesolowski was dismissed by Pope Francis and left the Dominican Republic immediately, and although initial news reports attributed his departure to a dispute with Roberto Gonzalez Nieves, the Archbishop of San Juan, Puerto Rico, it was later reported that his involvement in child abuse had brought about his dismissal.
FRANCES D'EMILIO
Jozef Wesolowski, priest: born Poland 15 July 1948; died Rome 27 August 2015.
