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Polish priest held over Caribbean child abuse
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Polish police yesterday arrested a Roman Catholic priest suspected of sex offenses against children in the Dominican Republic, state prosecutors said.
The 36-year-old priest, who served in the central city of Santiago on the Caribbean island and is identified only as Wojciech G for legal reasons, will be formally questioned and charged today, said Dariusz Nowak, a spokesman for prosecutors in Warsaw.
“We received documents from the Dominican Republic that ... will allow us to press charges,” Nowak said.
Wojciech G denied any wrongdoing in a 2013 interview with Polish media, suggesting he was set up by local drug gangs.
Polish prosecutors began investigations in September into him and 65-year-old Polish archbishop Jozef Wesolowski, who served as a papal envoy in Dominican Republic’s capital Santo Domingo.
Authorities there also suspect Wesolowski of abusing boys. Pope Francis suspended him from his duties and summoned him to the Vatican last August.
Nowak said yesterday that “all documents from the Dominican Republic were transferred to the Vatican,” though Polish prosecutors continue to investigate the case.
In an unprecedented move, Polish church leaders apologized last year over alleged pedophile priests but claimed parents shared the blame for the abuse.
After public outcry, the country’s top Catholic cleric Archbishop Jozef Michalik apologized.
The church in Poland faced its first civil lawsuit for damages this month. The demand for 47,500 euros (US$63,500) was made by a 25-year-old male — identified only as Marcin K — who was molested as a child.
A priest was jailed in 2012 for two years over the case, but his diocese refused to be held financially liable.
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