Former Vatican diplomat indicted on child pornography charges
By Philip Pullella
VATICAN
CITY – A Catholic priest who worked as a diplomat at the Vatican’s
embassy in Washington was indicted on Saturday on charges of possessing
child pornography in the United States and Canada.
A
Vatican statement said an investigation found that Msgr. Carlo Alberto
Capella, who was arrested in the Vatican in April after he had been
recalled, had allegedly possessed and exchanged “a large quantity” of
child pornography.
A Vatican magistrate ordered him to stand trial. It will start in the Vatican’s tiny courtroom on June 22, the statement said.
It
was not possible to reach Capella, who is being held in a cell in the
Vatican’s police barracks. The Vatican did not identify his lawyer.
The scandal is the latest blow to the Catholic Church as it struggles to overcome repeated sex abuse cases among its clergy.
Last
month, Chile’s 34 bishops offered to resign en masse after attending a
crisis meeting with Pope Francis in the Vatican about the cover-up of
sexual abuse in the south American nation.
In
August, the U.S. State Department notified the Holy See of a possible
violation of laws relating to child pornography images by a member of
the diplomatic corps of the Holy See accredited to Washington.
A
few weeks later, the United States requested that Capella’s diplomatic
immunity be waived to open the way for possible prosecution there, but
the Vatican refused.
Saturday’s
Vatican statement said the tiny city-state had jurisdiction in the case
because even though the alleged crime was committed abroad, Capella was
a Vatican official at the time.
After
Capella was recalled to Rome, police in Windsor, Canada, said they had
issued an arrest warrant for him on suspicion of possessing and
distributing child pornography on the internet while visiting church in
Canada.
The
Capella case is potentially the worst involving a diplomat since the
case in 2013 of former Archbishop Jozef Wesolowski, who was Polish.
Wesolowski
faced charges of paying boys for sexual acts, downloading and buying
pedophile material while he was the Vatican’s ambassador in the
Dominican Republic.
He
was recalled to Rome by the Vatican, arrested, and stripped of his
duties after a report by Dominican media led to an investigation by
Dominican magistrates.
He died in hospital in 2015 at the age of 67 before his trial before a Vatican court could begin.
Pope
Francis has declared zero tolerance over abuse scandals that have beset
the Church for decades, but critics say he has not done enough,
particularly to hold bishops responsible for mishandling or covering up
abuse.
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