A high-ranking Vatican priest working in the Holy See's embassy in Washington has been recalled after U.S. prosecutors asked for him to be charged and face trial in a child pornography investigation, Vatican and U.S. officials said Friday.
The Vatican declined to identify the diplomat, but said he was currently in Vatican City and that Vatican prosecutors had launched their own probe.
The State Department said it had asked the Vatican to lift the official's diplomatic immunity on Aug. 21. It said that request was denied. For the State Department to make such a request, its lawyers would have needed to be convinced that there was reasonable cause for criminal prosecution.
In a statement, the Vatican said the U.S. State Department had notified the Vatican on Aug. 21 of a "possible violation of laws relating to child pornography images" by one of its diplomats in Washington.
A U.S. official familiar with the case said the priest was a senior member of the Vatican embassy staff. The Vatican yearbook lists three counselors who work under the nuncio, or ambassador.
The Vatican said recalling the priest was consistent with diplomatic practice of sovereign states. In declining to identify him, the Vatican said the case was subject to confidentiality while still under investigation.
The Vatican has recalled envoys before — including its former ambassador to the Dominican Republic, who was recalled in 2013 after being accused of sexually abusing young boys on the Caribbean island.
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The Vatican justified its decision to remove Monsignor Jozef Wesolowski from Dominican jurisdiction by submitting him first to a canonical court proceeding at the Vatican, and then putting him on trial in the Vatican's criminal court, which has jurisdiction over the Holy See's diplomatic corps.
Wesolowski was defrocked by the church court. But he died before the criminal trial got underway.
Dominican prosecutors initially balked at the recall, and they never filed charges because of his immunity.
The Vatican doesn't have extradition treaties.
After he was defrocked, Wesolowski lost his diplomatic immunity and the Vatican said he could be tried by other courts. However, it refused to provide Dominican authorities with information about his whereabouts or how even he had pleaded to the charges.
