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East News/REX
World News

First Vatican abuse trial facing adjournment

by Desmond Busteed

It's after Joseph Wesoleski, the Pope's former ambassador in the Dominican Republic was admitted to hospital. It's not clear what's wrong with the 66 year-old.

The judge is expected to immediately adjourn the case to a later date.

Wesoleski is first high-ranking Vatican official to be charged with paedophilia is expected before a criminal court in the city state today.

The trial of the former nuncio Joseph Wesoleski, from Poland also marks the first time the Holy See's used its criminal justice system, put in place by Pope Francis to handle cases of alleged clerical wrongdoing.

Wesolowski is accused of paying teenage boys for sexual acts while he was the Vatican's top diplomat in the Dominican Republic

The 66-year-old cleric, whom the future John Paul II ordained in Poland in 1972, was quietly recalled by Francis in August 2013 after the archbishop of Santo Domingo alerted the pontiff to suspicions that Wesolowski had molested teenage boys.

"He definitely seduced me with money," Francis Aquino Aneury told the New York Times in 2014.

Aneury said he was 14 when a man he described as "the Italian", because he spoke Spanish with an Italian accent, offered them large sums of money in exchange for sexual acts.

"I felt very bad. I knew it wasn't the right thing to do, but I needed the money," he said.

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