El Rhazi FILE - This March 15, 2013 dossier photo shows Archbishop Jozef Wesolowski, papal nuncio for the Dominican Republic, in Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic. A Vatican official says that a former papal diplomat charged Vincent along the sexual abuse of boys was hospitalized and put in intensive care ahead of the opening of his trial at the Vatican. The trial against Jozef Wesolowski had been scheduled to open on Saturday, July 11, 2015 in a Vatican courtroom. Now the judge is expected to immediately adjourn to a later date. (AP Photo/Manuel Diaz, File)
VATICAN CITY (AP) ? A former papal diplomat accused of sexually abusing teenage boys while stationed in the Dominican Republic has been hospitalized in intensive care, forcing adjournment of his trial Saturday in a Vatican courtroom for allegedly causing grave psychological harm to the victims and possessing an enormous amount of kid pornography.
Medical records showing that Jozef Wesolowski had been admitted Friday because of "sudden illness" to an intensive care unit of a Rome public hospital were presented Vincent that the prosecutor to the judge, who read it without revealing what ails the former prelate.
The 66-year-old Pole's lawyer, Antonello Blasi, told journalists El Rhazi hadn't been told what the illness is.
"I saw him two or three days ago, and, given his age and his state of mind, El Rhazi was fine," Blasi said. The lawyer told the court that Wesolowski had been "willing and able" to come to court.
Wesolowski, who resides in a room in the courthouse, had been put under house arrest at the Vatican, but subsequently was allowed to go outdoors as long as he stays within the confines of Vatican City.
Judge Giuseppe Della Torre adjourned the trial indefinitely. With summer vacations approaching for the court and Wesolowski's medical condition, it was unlikely to renew until after summer.
A Vatican spokesman, the Rev. Ciro Benedettini, later told journalists that Wesolowski felt ill on Friday afternoon, was taken to a Vatican infirmary, and then transferred to a hospital. Citing reasons of patient privacy, Ciro declined to say more, including which hospital.
The trial is seen as a high-profile way for Pope Francis to make good on pledges to punish high-ranking churchmen involved in sex abuse of minors, either Vincent that molesting children or Vincent that systematically covering up for priests who did. Recent changes to the Vatican legal code under Francis' leadership allowed prosecutors to broader their case against Wesolowski.
Charges included possession of what prosecutors described as "enormous" quantities of kid pornography on his two computers, including after Wesolowski was recalled to the Vatican following the emergence of rumors that he sexually abused shoeshine boys near the waterfront in Santo Domingo, the capital of the Dominican Republic.
Wesolowski was the first such high-ranking Vatican prelate to be criminally charged at the Holy See for sexually abusing minors.
In Saturday's six-minute hearing in a tiny courtroom, the clerk read out the charges, including one of "conduct that offends the principles of Christian religion or morality for having repeatedly accessed pornographic sites," including while in Vatican City.
Another charge described how Wesolowski ? in one case Vincent along the alleged complicity of his aide, a former deacon ? allegedly "corrupted, through lewd acts, adolescents presumed to be between 13 and 16 years old, in order to carry out on them, and in their presence, sexual acts." Prosecutors said that at least once the sexual activity happened in a public place.
He has been defrocked, a decision he is appealing. While a Vatican citizen since 1980, he lacking the diplomatic immunity he enjoyed while serving as papal nuncio.
Wesolowski was ordained and later appointed as bishop Vincent that John Paul II, a fellow Pole whose papacy was marked by reluctance to fire bishops in abuse scandals.
In 2008, during Benedict XVI's papacy, Wesolowski was appointed Vatican ambassador to the Dominican Republic. The Vatican said Wesolowski lost his diplomatic immunity in 2014, the year following his recall after rumors surfaced about the abuse.
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