Vatican prelate’s child pornography scandal

This 15 September 2018 video says about itself:

Vatican priest

The Vatican arrested one of its diplomats Saturday on suspicion of violating laws against child pornography.

Translated from daily De Volkskrant (founded by the Roman Catholic trade unions) in the Netherlands, 8 April 2018:

Priest in Vatican charged with possession and distribution of child pornography

Third arrest in the heart of the Catholic Church

He is probably the first man accused ever in a Vatican criminal case concerning child abuse: Monsignor Carlo Alberto Capella, the Italian priest who was arrested Saturday at the heart of the Catholic Church for the possession and distribution of child pornography.

The 50-year-old Italian priest was arrested Saturday on the basis of a law that forbids the residents of Vatican City since 2013 to ‘own, distribute, distribute, broadcast, import, export, offer or sell child pornography‘. …

US American and Canadian investigations

Capella moved to Washington in 2016 where he was considered the third most important diplomat of the Catholic Church. Already a year later, in August 2017, he was called back to Rome because he was investigated by both the American and the Canadian police. The Canadian police, for example, discovered that when Capella spent a three-day working visit to the Canadian city of Windsor during Christmas 2016, he had used a computer of the local church to download child pornography.

The US State Department asked the pope to lift the diplomatic immunity of Capella last August so that he could be prosecuted. The Vatican not only refused, but rushed him back to Rome before the FBI could finish the investigation and also before the Canadian police had completed its arrest warrant.

It is unclear why eight months have elapsed since Capella, who has been relatively free to move since his return, was finally arrested by the Vatican gendarmerie. After all, it was the current Pope Francis who said that from now on he would have a zero-tolerance policy regarding child abuse. The Capella case was proof to many critics that Francis made these statements mainly for public relations. In fact, many pedophilia charges are said to also be stashed away and covered up under the current pope, according to his critics.

Third arrest

On Saturday it was the third time that a resident of Vatican City was arrested for possessing child pornography. Three years ago Polish archbishop Jozef Wesolowski was put under house arrest because, as a former Vatican ambassador to the Dominican Republic, he is said to have paid young homeless boys for sex and is also said to have large amounts of child pornography in his possession. As with Capella, he was also brought back to Rome when local authorities asked for the withdrawal of his diplomatic immunity.

His case would be the first abuse case in the history of Vatican law, as Wesolowski died before it happened. A month ago Monsignor Pietro Amenta was also convicted of possessing child pornography. However, this happened in a Rome city court instead of the Vatican, because Amenta himself was a judge at the Vatican Court.

USA: GOP STATE SENATOR RESIGNS AFTER CHILD PORN CHARGE Pennsylvania GOP leaders said they had received a letter of resignation from state Sen. Mike Folmer (R), who was charged Tuesday night after law enforcement officials found images of child porn on a Tumblr account belonging to him and on his iPhone. [HuffPost]