A Catholic priest who worked as a diplomat at the Vatican’s embassy in Washington was on Saturday indicted on charges of possessing child pornography in the US 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 is to start in the Vatican’s tiny courtroom on Friday next week, the statement said.
It was not possible to reach Capella, who is being held in a cell in the Vatican’s police barracks.
The Holy See did not identify Capella’s 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.
The US Department of State in August last year 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 US requested that Capella’s diplomatic immunity be waived to open the way for possible prosecution there, but the Vatican refused.
The statement said the Holy See 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 have said he has not done enough, particularly to hold bishops responsible for mishandling or covering up abuse.
SEEKING CHANGE: A hospital worker said she did not vote in previous elections, but ‘now I can see that maybe my vote can change the system and the country’ Voting closed yesterday across the Solomon Islands in the south Pacific nation’s first general election since the government switched diplomatic allegiance from Taiwan to Beijing and struck a secret security pact that has raised fears of the Chinese navy gaining a foothold in the region. The Solomon Islands’ closer relationship with China and a troubled domestic economy weighed on voters’ minds as they cast their ballots. As many as 420,000 registered voters had their say across 50 national seats. For the first time, the national vote also coincided with elections for eight of the 10 local governments. Esther Maeluma cast her vote in the
Nearly half of China’s major cities are suffering “moderate to severe” levels of subsidence, putting millions of people at risk of flooding, especially as sea levels rise, according to a study of nationwide satellite data released yesterday. The authors of the paper, published by the journal Science, found that 45 percent of China’s urban land was sinking faster than 3mm per year, with 16 percent at more than 10mm per year, driven not only by declining water tables, but also the sheer weight of the built environment. With China’s urban population already in excess of 900 million people, “even a small portion
UNSETTLING IMAGES: The scene took place in front of TV crews covering the Trump trial, with a CNN anchor calling it an ‘emotional and unbelievably disturbing moment’ A man who doused himself in an accelerant and set himself on fire outside the courthouse where former US president Donald Trump is on trial has died, police said yesterday. The New York City Police Department (NYPD) said the man was declared dead by staff at an area hospital. The man was in Collect Pond Park at about 1:30pm on Friday when he took out pamphlets espousing conspiracy theories, tossed them around, then doused himself in an accelerant and set himself on fire, officials and witnesses said. A large number of police officers were nearby when it happened. Some officers and bystanders rushed
HYPOCRISY? The Chinese Ministry of Foreign Affairs yesterday asked whether Biden was talking about China or the US when he used the word ‘xenophobic’ US President Joe Biden on Wednesday called for a hike in steel tariffs on China, accusing Beijing of cheating as he spoke at a campaign event in Pennsylvania. Biden accused China of xenophobia, too, in a speech to union members in Pittsburgh. “They’re not competing, they’re cheating. They’re cheating and we’ve seen the damage here in America,” Biden said. Chinese steel companies “don’t need to worry about making a profit because the Chinese government is subsidizing them so heavily,” he said. Biden said he had called for the US Trade Representative to triple the tariff rates for Chinese steel and aluminum if Beijing was