A “dossier" accusing papal nuncio (ambassador) Wesolowski of sex abuse of minors was sent to Pope Francis in July 2013 by Santo Domingo Cardinal Nicolás de Jesús López Rodríguez. The pope found the information credible enough to dismiss Wesolowski from the Dominican Republic on Aug. 21 via confidential letter .

Neither the civil authorities nor the public knew about Wesolowski until a local TV program did an expose’ on Aug. 31. The result of a year-long investigation, the broadcast contained testimony that the archbishop solicited sex for money from Santo Domingo’s poorest boys..

“We learned from the children that Wesolowski took pictures of them while they were masturbating. Oral sex was performed,” Nuria Piera, an investigative journalist in the Dominican Republic, said. “He abused that poverty and used that mechanism to approach children and take advantage of them for years,” according to Yeni Berenice Reynoso, National District prosecutor.

Wesolowski’s whereabouts remained unknown until Santo Domingo Auxiliary Bishop Víctor Masalles tweeted on June 24, 2014: “For me it was a surprise to see Wesolowski walking along the Via della Scrofa in Rome.”

Embarrassed, the Vatican announced on June 27 that Wesolowski had been laicized (defrocked) “in the past few days,” but he remained a free man. The press reported this as “the most tangible demonstration of what Pope Francis called his ‘zero tolerance’ for child sex abuse.”

On September 26, 2014, the Italian newspaper Il Corriere della Serra reported that Wesolowski was arrested by order of the pope because “there was a serious risk that the nuncio would be arrested on Italian territory at the request of the Dominican authorities and then extradited.”

Wesolowski had more than 100,000 computer files of pornography. “Some were downloaded from the internet and others the victims themselves were forced to take. The prelate stored part of this chamber of horrors on his own laptop. The material, which is classified by type, shows dozens of young girls engaged in sexual activities but the preference is for males. Images show youngsters aged between 13 and 17 being humiliated for the camera, filmed naked and forced to have sexual relations with each other or with adults. … Wesolowski is suspected of belonging to an international network that extends well beyond what has emerged so far.” (emphasis mine)

Even under house arrest in the Vatican, Wesolowski was still able to access child porn on the internet. A large component of human trafficking is the “use of force, fraud, or coercion to control other people for the purpose of engaging in commercial sex. Pornography not only contributes to the demand for sex trafficking … but it also contributes to child exploitation, sexual violence, and lifelong porn addictions.”

On the eve of Wesolowski’s July 11, 2015, trial, the nuncio was taken to the hospital. His lawyer “didn’t know what ails his client. ‘I saw him two or three days ago, and, given his age [67] and his state of mind, he was fine,’ said Antonello Blasi.” The archbishop died the next month.

Wesolowski’s autopsy confirming he died from "natural causes" was "conducted by a team of coroners named by the Vatican prosecutor." This "aroused doubts and suspicions in the Dominican Republic and other countries.”

In addition to Wesolowski, Pope Francis has personally protected five other sexual predators. Perhaps the worst case involves Fr. Nicola Corradi.

By open letter and video message “handed to Pope Francis” in May 2014, former students at the notorious Provolo Institute for the Deaf in Italy begged the pope for justice. More than one hundred deaf and mute children had been sexually abused at the boarding school.

The letter told Pope Francis that three of the Italian perpetrators – including Fr. Nicola Corradi – held current positions at the Provolo Institute in Argentina. The pope took no action to stop the pedophiles.

Corradi and four others in the Argentine school were arrested in Nov. 2016 and charged with raping and molesting at least 22 children. Other reports poured in and “it’s now thought that as many as 60 children fell victim to abuse.”

On Sept. 7, a report to the UN Committee on the Rights of the Child detailed how, after three years, Pope Francis has not implemented any of the committee’s recommendations to protect children from sexual violence.

“The Holy See was summoned to the committee in 2014 where the Vatican was implored to take concrete steps to remedy decades of institutional complicity and cover-up of widespread sexual violence. While last Friday marked the Vatican’s deadline to submit a comprehensive report on their progress, the committee reports they have not received anything thus far.”

In their report, SNAP (Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests).and CCR (Center for Constitutional Rights) “detail the Vatican’s failure to implement any of the committee’s recommendations, including increasing child protection from sexual violence and accountability for perpetrators and those who cover-up and conceal the offenses. The groups underscored the continued urgency to remedy this crisis, as revelations continue to unfold across the world of the widespread and pervasive nature of sexual violence in the Church.”

(Betty Clermont is author of The Neo-Catholics: Implementing Christian Nationalism in America.)