When Pope Benedict XVI named Archbishop Pietro Sambi as the Vatican's ambassador to the United Sates in 2005, he chose a man with broad international experience.The newest Papal Nuncio had spent 36 years in nine countries, including Israel, Indonesia, Belgium and Cuba.
Sambi was hailed by the Catholic News Agency as "one of the Vatican's most able diplomats" and by the Catholic Exchange as "an energetic and gregarious man with an ability to bring the human touch to diplomatic challenges."
One of those challenges turned out to be John Wojnowski, 67, who, since 1998 has ceaselessly picketed the Apostolic Nunciature on Washington D.C.'s posh Embassy Row, where Archbishop Sambi, 71, lives and works.
Wojnowski says he was molested in 1958 at age 15 by an Italian priest, and repressed the memory until 1997, when it was triggered by the suicide of a young clergy abuse victim in Texas.
Not long after, he launched his one-man crusade for a proper apology and "reparations" from the Church.
He has spent nearly every day for the last 12 years holding a large sign clearly visible to thousands of commuters along Massachusetts Avenue and anyone entering the Nunciature -- or the vice president's mansion across the street.
"Sociopaths Hide Pedophiles. Vatican Hides Pedophiles," proclaims the latest in a long series of protest banners.
For years, he was little more than a street-corner curiosity, cheered by some, jeered by others.
But escalating stories worldwide about child sexual abuse by Catholic priests and what many consider Rome's refusal to deal adequately with victims and offenders may finally have brought a measure of vindication to the retired ironworker.
In the latest twist, Wojnowski tells me that at least 15 times in the past 20 months, Sambi has insulted him in language most undiplomatic, uttered during the Nuncio's regular strolls along Massachusetts Avenue.
Wojnowski immediately writes each one in a datebook.
"You're an idiot, a paid idiot," was among the first entries, on Aug. 16, 2008.
"Shame. Shame. Shame. Shame. You are a fetid pervert," was the Oct. 21, 2008 insult.
"You're a total loser," came on March 19.
Despite my four detailed requests for comment -- two faxes, an e-mail and a hand-delivered letter to the Nunciature -- Sambi has chosen to remain silent.
I wanted to ask him why a career diplomat -- who served in the world's most populous Muslim country (Indonesia) and had dealings with warring Palestinians and Israelis in the Holy Land -- allegedly slurred a lone, unarmed individual.
I also wanted ask if he thought it appropriate to call an alleged victim of clergy sexual abuse a "pervert." I still welcome the chance to have that conversation.
Susan Gibbs, spokeswoman for the diocese, said the church investigated Wojnowski's complaint and found that the accused priest was dead.
Wojnowski has been offered counseling and other assistance, she said, but has declined.
"The Nuncio (Sambi) is a very kind person, a good person and priest," Gibbs said.
Wojnowski's continued presence -- his sign pole has worn a discernable groove in the sidewalk -- clearly rankles the archbishop and the church hierarchy.
In 2008, the police moved him and his banner a block away when Pope Benedict stayed at the Nunciature during his Washington visit
It probably doesn't help his case that Wojnowski has photographed Sambi on his walkabouts.
Aided by a cane, the archbishop is pictured wearing slacks and a sport shirt or sweater rather than a clerical collar and black suit, or the long cassock of his ecclesiastical office.
When he does address him, Wojnowski says, Sambi's words are crude, devoid of compassion and politesse.
He nearly always speaks in Italian, a language Wojnowski learned when his Polish family settled in Milan after World War II.
At age 15, while on summer holiday with his brothers in the Piedmont village of Cuzzago, Wojnowski says, a "priest offered to help me with Latin and called me into the rectory. He started touching my knee and my crotch and told me to masturbate in front of him. I ran away. That is all I remember. But I was totally crushed. I thought I ruined my life forever. After that my personality changed. My appearance changed. I became depressed and withdrawn. I did not know why."
Wojnowski quit high school, moved to Canada at 18, and took a series of menial jobs before coming here in 1963. A naturalized American citizen, he married a Polish woman on a trip to his homeland, then brought her back to start a family. They are now separated, but he says he sees his adult son, who lives near Baltimore, as well as his daughter and two grandchildren in California.
At an age when he could be spending time with his family and taking it easy, Wojnowski continues a different and difficult path.
Herewith Wojnowski's chronology and translations of Sambi's alleged insults.
"You are a loser. You are a loser with a camera. You are a total loser." (Sei un fallito. Sei un fallito come fotografo. Sei un fallito totale) March 19, 2010
"I do not speak with crazies" (No parlo con i pazzi, in response to Wojnowski's request in Italian for a brief chat with the Nuncio) May 3, 2009
"Imbecile. Cretin. I am ashamed of you, a gift to the enemies of the Church." (Deficiente cretino per mi vergogno di te, un dono hai nemici de la chiessa) March 21, 2009
"Cretin" (Cretino) Feb. 18, 2009
"Tool. Paid idiot." (Strumentallizzato. Idiota pagato.) Jan. 19, 2009
"Idiot" (Idiota) Jan. 10, 2009
"I am ashamed of you. You are a pig" (Mi vergogno di te. Sei un porco, Sambi's answer to Wojnowski's question: Excellency, are you ashamed to dress as a priest?) Dec. 28, 2008
"Imbecile. Cretin." (Imbecille. Cretino) Dec. 21, 2008
"Moron" (Deficiente). Nov. 20, 2008
"Perfect Moron" (Perfetto Deficiente) Nov. 1, 2008
"Shame. Shame. Shame. Shame. You are a stinking pervert." (Schemo. Schemo. Schemo. Schemo. Sei un pervertito fetente.) Oct. 21, 2008
"Crazy. Crazy. Moron," (Pazzo. Pazzo. Deficiente). Oct. 15, 2008
"I am not for sale, like you are" (Spoken in English) Sept. 5, 2008
"Paid Imbecile." (Pagato imbecile) Aug. 31, 2008
"You are paid. You have no dignity" (Ti hanno pagato. No hai dignita) Aug. 17, 2008
"So there, idiot. A paid idiot (Ecco Idiota, un idiota pagato) Aug. 16, 2008
Wojnowski tells me he receives a total of $2,200 a month from just two sources: Social Security and the ironworkers' union pension fund. After his molestation flashback, he wrote to one ranking church official in Washington seeking help (he says he got no reply) and attended a few free therapy sessions offered by a priest before he quit counseling and took his grievance public.
"I think they thought I was a mouse who would give up," he told me.
In the early days of his protest, an unidentified priest from the Nunciature reported that Wojnowski's alleged tormentor had died, that his protest would bring him shame and that American laws that protect abuse victims do not apply in Italy.
Last month Wojnowski reported an anonymous death threat to local police.
Pale, wiry, and in fragile health, Wojnowski says he lives the simple life in a small home in Bladensburg, a Maryland suburb.
He has no car (it takes him an hour to reach the Nunciature by subway and bus), no telephone answering machine, and no computer (he uses one at the local public library to update his websites, www.sorrypope.com and www.vaticanhidespedophiles.com).
And he confesses he has no clue how large a settlement would persuade him to claim victory over the Vatican and decamp from his street corner.
In 1998 he estimated that $240,000 might suffice, though today it would have to be "substantially more."
"Even with the insults, I won't stop standing here. I want financial reparations. I would like to have the Church make me an offer."
He would also like Pietro Sambi, the Pope's man in Washington, to stop calling him names.
SIC: PD