ROME, April 13, 2018 (LifeSiteNews) – The Vatican has arrested a priest and high-ranking diplomat on suspicion of possessing, viewing, and distributing child pornography.
Monsignor Carlo Capella served in the Vatican’s diplomatic corps since 2004. Ontario police accuse him of uploading child porn while visiting a “place of worship” during the 2016 Christmas holiday, USA Today reports.
He was most recently stationed at the U.S. embassy in Washington, D.C., but was recalled by the Vatican after the State Department notified it of the porn charges on August 21, 2017.
American officials had requested that the Vatican waive Capella’s diplomatic immunity so he could face prosecution in the U.S. But the Vatican instead conducted its own investigation, after which it arrested him on Saturday.
He is currently being held inside the Vatican’s gendarmerie barracks, according to Crux, where he awaits indictment and trial. Under Vatican laws adopted in 2013, child porn possession and distribution are punishable by up to five years in prison and 50,000 Euros in fines. Even higher penalties are possible for possessing a more “considerable quantity” of material; USA Today reports that Capella’s sentence could be as long as 12 years.
The 2013 laws extended the Holy See’s jurisdiction to direct Vatican employees anywhere in the world, rendering them vulnerable to prosecution both by the Vatican and by the jurisdiction in which a crime occurs.
According to the Vox Cantoris blog, several questions remain about the case.
“Why did it take eight months to take a formal action and what was Capella doing in the meantime; was he still accessing pornography?” Vox Cantoris asks. “Was he making contact with young teenage boys?”
Pope Francis has said he has a “zero tolerance” policy for child sexual abuse, but critics say the Vatican remains too tolerant of homosexuals in the priesthood, guaranteeing abuse will continue.
“Statistics provided by the U.S. Catholic Conference of Bishops as recently as 2016 and 2017 have consistently shown that the clerical sex abuse crisis is owing to a homosexual clergy,” Bradley Eli writes at Church Militant. “In spite of this well-established fact, the Vatican does little to remove such men from the priesthood or even speak out on the issue.”