There was unexpected drama in the Holy See when a former papal nuncio, defrocked Polish archbishop Jozef Wesolowski, fell ill on the eve of Saturday morning's scheduled first hearing against him in a Vatican City court on child sex abuse charges.
The trial got off to a false start, with the Vatican court having to immediately adjourn, acknowledging the defendant was “not present in court” but had been admitted to hospital.
“The court took due note of the impediment to the presence of the defendant, following the onset of an unexpected illness necessitating his transfer to a public hospital where he is currently in the intensive care unit,” read a statement released by the Holy See.
Although no other details of the ex-nuncio’s illness were released, Vatican sources have pointed out that 66-year-old Archbishop Wesolowski has a “heart condition”.
The trial may not now be reconvened until September after the summer break, depending on when Mr Wesolowski’s condition improves.
Five sex abuse charges
Following Saturday morning’s brief court hearing, the Holy See released details of the five sex abuse charges brought against the former nuncio by the Vatican “Promoter of Justice” or Chief Prosecutor.
Primarily, he stands accused of the abuse of minors during his five years (2008-2013) as papal nuncio to the Dominican Republic, a period when, allegedly, he regularly frequented an area in Santa Domingo well known for child prostitution.
The prosecutor has charged him with corruption of adolescents and inducing them to commit libidinous acts with him and in his presence.
Some of the first allegations against Mr Wesolowski came in a letter to church officials from a local deacon who had allegedly procured child victims for the ex-nuncio, allegedly picking up young shoeshine boys on the waterfront and paying them for sexual acts.
The ex-nuncio allegedly liked to film the boys masturbating.
Furthermore, the public prosecutor's office in Santo Domingo, which would like eventually to extradite Mr Wesolowski, has accused him of bribing poor children for sex, offering money and, in one case, medicine to treat a child's epilepsy.
Mr Wesolowski is, furthermore, charged with “having procured and stored material from web sites showing minors (under 18) involved in explicit sexual acts, real and simulated, as well as images of the sexual organs of minors, displayed for primarily sexual purposes”.
‘Enormous quantity’
The prosecution also alleges that he had an “enormous quantity” of this child pornography on his personal computer.
The ex-nuncio is also charged with having caused “serious damage of a mentally disturbing nature” to the adolescents by his behaviour.
Finally, he is accused of “having cultivated behaviour that offends basic principles of religion and Christian morality”.
If found guilty, the former nuncio could face a five- to seven-year prison sentence, a punishment that would almost certainly be served in an Italian state prison since there are no permanent detention facilities within the tiny Vatican state.
Recalled hurriedly from the Dominican Republic in 2013, the archbishop was “reduced to the lay status” in a Vatican canonical court hearing last year.
Given that the canon law court found him guilty of sex abuse, it is only logical to conclude that the Vatican City court will also find him guilty.
The Wesolowski trial, which will most probably run through the autumn into the New Year, will inevitably be closely monitored by the clerical sex abuse victims’ lobby.
If he is not found guilty, the Holy See will once again find itself charged with a “cover-up”, whilst a guilty verdict will be seen as proof of Pope Francis’s attempts to seriously reform both the Curia and the Church itself.
In the meantime, the sex abuse issue has impinged on the pope’s current week- long visit to Ecuador, Bolivia and Paraguay.
Letter of protest
Earlier this week, Bolivian police detained three Chileans who had wanted to deliver a letter to the pope by way of protest against the appointment to the southern Chile city of Osorno of Bishop Juan Barros.
Critics accuse the bishop of covering up the sex abuse crimes of a notorious abuser, Rev Fernando Karadima.
Police in the city of Santa Cruz held the three men for more than 14 hours, prompting the complaints of the sex abuse survivors’ lobby, Snap, which argued the three men should have been “praised” rather than arrested.
Mr Wesolowski has been under arrest in the tiny Vatican state since last September.
He is the first high-ranking Catholic official to stand trial in the Vatican on such sex charges and the case is being closely watched by victims of priestly abuse, who have accused the Vatican of repeatedly hushing up previous scandals.
In an effort to make the clergy accountable for their actions around the world, Pope Francis has rewritten church rules, opening the way for Saturday's trial.
Mr Wesolowski was ordained to the priesthood by fellow Pole, Pope John Paul.
He has already been defrocked by a Vatican tribunal, a rare occurrence for an archbishop and a sign of how seriously the church has taken the accusations against him.
Officials have suggested he could be extradited to the Dominican Republic or his native Poland.
Looking to restore the credibility of the Roman Catholic Church, Francis ruled in 2013 that the Vatican's criminal code could be applied to its employees wherever they lived.
In June, he also approved the creation of an unprecedented Vatican tribunal to judge bishops accused of covering up or failing to prevent sexual abuse of minors.
While some of the groups representing victims of priestly abuse have welcomed the Wesolowski trial, they have said much more needs to be done to root out wrongdoers.
One group, BishopAccountability.org, says 79 bishops have been accused publicly of sexual wrongdoing, and only four have been defrocked.
The pope was not in the Vatican on Saturday, but is visiting South America, with much of the Vatican media pack in tow.
"It's very important that they do this right and I'm pretty sure that the date was chosen so that there wasn't a big media circus surrounding day one of the trial," said Robert Mickens, editor-in-chief of the Catholic magazine Global Pulse.
Additional reporting: Reuters