Unprecedented' Amount of Child Porn Discovered in the Vatican
The Catholic Church has been working to expose clerical pedophilia, detectives have discovered an “unprecedented” amount of child pornography including videos, images, and other content within the Vatican.
Gian Piero Milano, the Vatican Promotor of Justice, responded to a report of allegations which he read to officials of the Catholic Church during a judicial ceremony.
Milano expressed that due to the internal investigations protocol within the Catholic Church, he isn’t under any obligation by the law to release the names of people who allegedly possessed child pornography and accused of pedophilia.
A spokesman for the Holy See, Frederico Lombardi, displayed openness and revealed that Archbishop Josef Wesolowski as one of the accused that started the investigation. In 2014, reports of Wesolowski's possession of more than 100,000 pictures and videos of children performing sexual acts in the Dominican Republic and Poland was exposed. Internal policies in the Vatican was what kept Wesolowski from going to prison for “his own perfection.”
The Catholic Church took unusual action and had the Archbishop face trial for the prosecution for his crimes and placed him in “protective” house arrest. He then died mysteriously before the case was even opened. Many victims were outraged that there was no justice, especially when they were told he was able to leave the Dominican Republic and back to the Vatican where he could avoid being persecuted. Church and State describes that what was found on the computer owned by Wesolowski was sickening:
More than 160 videos involving teen boys being forced to masturbate on camera and perform sexual acts on each other. The boys were raped and even pushed into having sex with adults. Wesolowski was very monotonous and protective of his child porn, storing away over 86,000 pictures in locked and labeled folders. 45,000 other pictures were removed along with he other videos and pictures found. The Archbishop even took his porn with him while traveling on trips containing a lot more videos and images.
The Guardian reported that even with the cases of child pornography, authorities in the Vatican are fighting organized crime like money laundering and drug trafficking. In 2014, 3 drug deliveries were interrupted especially with a packet filled with cocaine-filled condoms. The drugs were discovered at Leipzeig airport in Germany and delivered to the Vatican to rope in the buyer, but no one stepped forward to take it
With the criminal activity going on, only 6 individuals were sentenced to the Vatican’s prison over the past few years, The people include Iana Azhdanova, a Femen activist who stroke her bare breast while grabbing baby Jesus statue from the Vatican's nativity scene, and Marcello di Finizio, a protestor from Italy who climbed up St. Peter’s Basilica.