World

Vatican ex-envoy Wesolowski dies ahead of abuse trial

August 28, 2015 7:03 pm

Jozef Wesolowski, a former archbishop and Vatican envoy to the Dominican Republic, has died before he could be tried for child sex offences.

Wesolowski, 66, was found dead in his rooms in Vatican City in front of the television, officials said.

He had been taken ill just before the start of his Vatican trial in July.

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He was accused of paying for sex with children in the Dominican Republic and would have been the first senior church official tried on paedophile charges.

Wesolowski was recalled to Rome and defrocked by Church authorities in 2013 after he was filmed by local television apparently seeking child prostitutes in Santo Domingo.

The case was seen as a test of the Vatican’s pledge to stamp out abuse.

Last year, the Pope compared the actions of those who commit such crimes to a “satanic mass”.