Cardinal Nicolas de Jesus Lopez told reporters late Tuesday that
Archbishop Jozef Wesolowski will be investigated by the Congregation for
the Doctrine of the Faith, the office that deals with abuse
allegations.
"This is an extremely serious issue, very serious, the most serious of its kind for the Holy See," Lopez said.
It is believed to be the first known sex abuse investigation against a
high-ranking Vatican official in recent times, though former Vatican
officials have also been accused after they left Rome.
Lopez said he personally traveled to the Vatican to meet with Pope
Francis to talk about the allegations involving the 65-year-old
Wesolowski.
"I compiled some reports. There were confidential reports, but obviously
I have no evidence for those," he said. "It's up to the Holy See to
investigate."
A Vatican spokesman, the Rev. Federico Lombardi, previously said the
church was investigating Wesolowski, but gave no details, and Dominican
church officials denied they involved allegations of child sex abuse.
Lopez's comments come shortly after Dominican prosecutor Bolivar Sanchez
said he has interviewed seven boys between 13 and 18 years old as part
of the investigation. He said three of them work on the streets of the
capital of Santo Domingo while the remaining four live elsewhere.
Local
news media have said some of the youths shine shoes.
Sanchez declined further comment except to qualify some of the teens' allegations as coherent.
Attorney General Francisco Dominguez Brito said if the government finds
any concrete evidence against Wesolowski, it would seek his extradition.
He noted, however, that the Dominican Republic has no extradition
agreement with the Vatican.
Wesolowski was removed on Aug. 21 after serving as the Vatican's
representative in the Dominican Republic since 2008. His whereabouts are
unclear.
Dominican prosecutors launched their investigation last week, largely in
response to local media reports of allegations of sexual misconduct by
Wesolowski as well as a friend and fellow Polish priest, who is also
outside the country.
After Wesolowski was removed, Lopez said he didn't know what prompted
that action and suggested it might have been a result of a personal
conflict with Puerto Rico Archbishop Roberto Gonzalez Nieves.
Wesolowski had also served as apostolic delegate to the U.S. territory.
Gonzalez's spokesman, Samuel Soto, said he did not have any immediate comment on Lopez's remarks or the ongoing investigation.
Pope Benedict XVI had named Wesolowski to the post in 2008. He had
previously served as papal nuncio in Kazakhstan, Tadjikistan, Kyrgzstan
and Uzbekistan and Bolivia.
He was ordained a priest in 1972 and entered the Vatican's diplomatic
service in 1980, serving in Vatican embassies in Africa, Costa Rica,
Japan, Switzerland, India and Denmark, the Catholic news agency Zenit
reported when he was named Dominican nuncio in 2008.