Meditation 1239
No Justice in the Vatican
by: John Tyrrell
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Defrocked archbishop Jozef Wesolowski died this morning in his Vatican apartment, not in jail where he would have been had the Vatican been willing to deport him to the Dominican Republic two years ago for a speedy trial. Supposedly a trial in the Vatican on child abuse charges was going to showcase Pope Francis' policy of being tough on pedophiles - but given how slowly the Vatican bureaucracy moves, Weslowski's death allowed him to avoid a criminal conviction.
There is little doubt he would have been convicted of having sex with minors in the Dominican Republic while he was posted there as papal envoy - the Pope's representative in the country.
It is highly questionable that his pedophilia started with that posting - there is probably a whole history of him abusing boys. No trial probably means any evidence of that will now remain undisclosed.
Wesolowski, like convicted pedophile Monsignor Bernard Prince before him, was a protégé and personal friend of Pope John Paul II - a pope who did nothing about child abuse other than welcome abusers into his inner circle, who gave plum positions in the Vatican to those who covered up for abusers, and who regarded the ever growing number of revelations of abuse by Catholic clergy as nothing more than a witch hunt.
John Paul II was canonized last year. That may be a bigger insult to child abuse victims than Weslowski's escape from criminal conviction.
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