The Vatican Gets Tough

Wow—strong stuff.

True, the Vatican announced recently that Jozef Wesolowski, the former Papal Nuncio to the Dominican Republic and Puerto Rico who is the highest-ranking official in the Catholic Church to be charged with child sexual abuse, won’t be extradited either to Poland or the Dominican Republic. Why? Because he’s in the diplomatic corps of the Vatican, which doesn’t permit extradition.

This was announced a few days ago and discussed in Geneva, Switzerland, in what The Telegraph called “an unprecedented grilling” by the United Nations. Instead, he will face trial in the Vatican. And, assuming he’s found guilty, he’ll serve time there.

Very convenient, because... Dominican jails? Well, Puerto Rico got an earful about them when a journalist ventured off to the Dominican Republic and got herself into some trouble over a little cocaine deal. So the island stood on its ear for months and watched as she got tried and convicted.

I’ve tried to google “Dominican Republic jails” but guess what? The Internet is off somewhere in a meeting—presumably on how to be capricious, willful, and completely unreliable, as well as maddening—so this account of Laura Hernández is completely from memory.

But if memory serves, the Dominicans start with the presumption of guilty until proven innocent—a nice little Caribbean twist on things. And unlike the United States, which according to today’s edition of The New York Times is seeing a surge in request for Kosher meals (which are better and four times more expensive than regular prison fare), Dominican jails tend to offer a more basic experience. Which is to say that the family has to bring in the food, personal hygiene items, and pretty much everything else. And as I remember it, the floor was dirt. Nor was there a bed….

And so for a period of several years, the island was treated to pictures of Hernández, who was reliably sobbing, and the inhumane, awful treatment she was receiving. And then, one day—presumably after some pressure from the United States—Hernández was freed.

Well, Wesolowski had a habit of drinking beer—very Caribbean—and walking the Malecón—Caribbean, yes, but, in this case, an area associated with kids who provide services not encouraged by the Catholic Church. Officially, that is.

So the top guy in the church went off and told the new pope—whom we’re all in love with—that the Dominican press was about to out Wesolowski and another Polish priest. And what happened? Did the Vatican follow its own rules—which as I remember require the offending clergy to be turned over to local authorities and jurisdiction? Nope—the Polish priest returned to Poland, and Wesolowski was recalled to the Vatican. And also, if memory serves, there were rumors swirling about false travel documents.

Well, whatever the Vatican is going to do, it has acted swiftly and decisively in at least one action. And that would be? They photoshopped him out of an official picture. Here’s the Telegraph on the subject:

In the original picture, he appears smiling in the second row, wearing a dog collar, black vestments and a heavy crucifix.

But in the re-touched photograph, his head has been replaced by that of an emeritus bishop, Francisco José Arnáiz.

The Huffington Post, writing of Wesolowski, said this:

His case has raised questions about whether the Vatican, by removing him from Dominican jurisdiction, was protecting him and placing its own investigations ahead of that of authorities in the Caribbean nation.

Raised questions?

Not for me!

The Clerics and the Choir Boys

Where’s Wesolowski?

The best answer is that Jozef Wesolowski, the former papal nuncio to the Dominican Republic, is somewhere in the Vatican, after he was recalled in August before reports of his alleged pedophile crimes were made public.

Right, you are saying. Another pedophile priest—ho-hum! Get on with it, Marc—find something new!

Well, here’s what’s new. First of all, the papal nuncio is an ambassador—he is the pope’s personal ambassador to—in this case—the government of the Dominican Republic. So? He’s got diplomatic immunity.

Second, Wesolowski is the highest Vatican official to be charged with sex abuse crimes, and more importantly, he’s a Vatican employee. Why is that important? Because for years, the Vatican has held that individual priests and bishops are not Vatican employees. Therefore, American courts cannot haul the Vatican into court, or force the Vatican to reveal documents or files.

This, of course, is a little screwy because when a priest is defrocked, or asks to leave the priesthood, or is accused of sexual abuse of minors—what happens? The bishop sits down and writes to the Vatican, and waits for an answer.

Well, the Vatican is on God’s time—and God, it appears, moves slowly, majestically, and without care for the hustle and haste that the rest of us spin out our lives with. So that means the bishop is down checking the mailbox every morning for years on end, and the pederast priest is still in business. No wonder the bishops were shuffling the pederast priests around—what else could they do?

Ah, but wait! Because in July of this year, Pope Francis…well, here’s a quote from The Huffington Post:

Francis in July also signed off on legislation criminalizing child sex abuse and other sexual crimes, with punishments ranging up to more than a decade in prison – laws that apply to Vatican employees as well as diplomatic staff. Those new laws, however, can't be applied retroactively in this case, officials say.    

The same article goes on to say:

The Vatican's own rules for conducting sex abuse investigations under church law calls for cooperation with civil authorities and reporting of abuse allegations to police where such laws require it. Those norms were crafted in the wake of the explosion of sex abuse cases in 2010, where thousands of people came forward in Europe, South America and elsewhere detailing abuse by priests who were never reported to police even though their bishops knew they were pedophiles.

Attorney General Francisco Domínguez Brito has said if the government finds any concrete evidence against Wesolowski, it would seek his extradition. He noted, however, that the Dominican Republic has no extradition agreement with the Vatican.

Hey, wait—the Pope was told in July of this year about Wesolowski, but did anyone run over to the police headquarters to fill them in? They had, after all, a couple of months—easily—to do so, before the Vatican withdrew its ambassador.

The article was written on September 12 of this year. Five days ago, Brito announced that the case against Wesolowski is nearly complete—he was putting the finishing touches on it. The article then goes on to quote a cardinal in the Dominican Republic:

En ese sentido, el cardenal Nicolás de Jesús López Rodríguez reiteró que esa situación le “avergüenza” y manifestó que destituido embajador del Vaticano será juzgado en la Santa Sede por un tribunal especial que conoce esos casos.

“El nuncio tiene que ser juzgado en el tribunal del Vaticano. Allá hay muchos tribunales, pero el que conoce el caso es Doctrina de la Fe”, puntualizó.

Agregó que Wesolowsky no puede ser extraditado por su condición diplomática y conforme a lo establecido en el tratado de Viena, del que la República Dominicana es signataria.

“Los diplomáticos tienen que ser juzgados en los países que representan, según la convención de Viena”, resaltó López Rodríguez.

What’s the cardinal saying? “The nuncio has to be tried by a Vatican court. There are many courts there, but the one which has knowledge of this case is the Doctrine of the Faith.

“He added that Wesolowski cannot be extradited do to his position as diplomat as established by the Treaty of Vienna.”

Right—that’s not Brito speaking, but a cardinal, though one could ask how he got into the picture. So it’s unclear—what’s Brito thinking?

Several other questions come to mind. According to one report:

REDACCIÓN CENTRAL.- El ex nuncio Josef Wesolowski obstaculizó investigaciones de pederastia en Puerto Rico contra más de una decena de sacerdotes de la diócesis de Arecibo.

I won’t translate except to say:

obstaculizó—hindered

decena—dozen

sacerdote—priest

Hmmm—just a second. Wesolowski was on American soil, hindering investigations of sexual abuse by priests. Hey, guess what! Wesolowski may have the privilege of being the first Vatican official on a witness stand in an American court. 

Next on the list—Wesolowski was not the only Polish guy running around in the Dominican Republic. There was also a priest… but let El Nuevo Día tell the story:

Precisamente, el jueves, las autoridades dominicanas le solicitaron  a la Interpol que ayude con la captura de otro sacerdote de origen polaco, Wojciech Gil, quien presuntamente también cometió actos sexuales contra menores en el vecino país.

And why do the Dominican authorities need the help of Interpol to find Wojciech Gil? Because at about the same time that the Vatican recalled Wesolowski, Gil got it into his head to return home to his beloved Poland.

So we have the perfect storm for the Vatican. It says it cooperates with local authorities—does it? And why is it that they pulled Wesolowski, and didn’t report to the local authorities, as their own policy dictated? Will the Vatican allow for extradition of one Polish priest but not another—an ambassador? Its new laws allow for up to ten years in prison—but will it loophole Weslowski? As it is—the worst thing that could happen to him is to be defrocked.

Two things come to mind. First, whatever the legality of the situation is, the morality is—to this old atheist—pretty clear. A guy was screwing around with kids—he should be punished, and punished by the laws of that country. If the Vatican insists on diplomatic immunity, the whole world will be laughing. Or at least those of us who have no illusions about the Vatican. The faithful will be seething.

Second, get ready, both of you guys, for a taste of the Dominican legal system. As I understand it, it operates on the belief that the defendant is guilty until found innocent. Oh, and guess what? Dominican jails are notorious—filthy, dirt floors, rats, no food or provisions unless provided by family. Puerto Ricans will remember dear Laura Hernández….

But look at the bright side.

Won’t be cold!

Extreme Something

“In our family, when we don’t know what to do, we have a cup of coffee. When we don’t know what to think, we write.” Words I once wrote in Iguanas.

Well, I’m doing both.

The coffee is next to my computer. But where is Anders Behring Breivik, the source of my confusion and need to write?

In Oslo, awaiting sentencing.

You remember the guy—the extremist who blew up a government building in Oslo, drove to Utoya, crossed by boat to the island, and shot up and killed 60 students involved in a political youth camp. It happened on a Friday in July, 2011. I was at “work”—quotation marks because I was really just waiting to be laid off, and hence doing nothing. So I devoted the day to reading the news of the atrocities as it came in.

Madness or evil, I wondered at the time.

And it’s a case where knowing more means understanding less. Two court-ordered psychiatric evaluations have been done—they disagree. The first stated he was psychotic—both at the time of the killings and at the time of the evaluation. The second report claims he’s sane. The trial has just ended, and it riveted Norway. Sentencing will be on or before August 24.

The prosecution claims he’s crazy—and with good reason. Norway’s jails focus on rehabilitation—but they really mean it, unlike the US. (One-third of black American males between 20 and 50 are in prison? Ouch!)* Oh, and maximum sentence length in Norway is “only” 21 years. Breivik is 33—that means he’d be in his mid-fifties when he got out. Still time to do some real damage. Some more real damage, I mean….

The other problem is the other prisoners. The concern is that Breivik could start spouting off his militant anti-Islamic rhetoric, and form right-wing cells (sorry, couldn’t help it) in prison. So the Norwegians—bless them—are seriously considering putting him is isolation. But there’s a problem—it denies him his basic human rights. So, with paradoxically the same logical-to-the-edge-of-craziness that characterizes Breivik, the authorities are proposing to hire “friends” who will come in several times a day to…

…play chess with him.

(It’s a digression but I can’t help it. Does anyone remember Laura Hernández who got stuck in a Dominican jail for a couple of years? And the jail, with the dirt floors and no food—the family had to bring that in….)

OK—prosecution says he’s crazy. Defense says he’s sane. Anders argues—among other things (apparently he wrote a 1500 page manifesto—remember Mein Kampf?—that lays it all out)—that this violence was a necessary wake-up call to Norway. Their culture, their very identity is under attack! No, not openly—but slowly, insidiously by you-know-who, the folks in the burkas and the head shawls.

Hey, sorry, but someone had to do it.

Well—Norwegian thoroughness. I spent some time—though admittedly as a kid—in Norway. Norwegian women—charmers! Norwegian men?

Well, guys, just a little…

…dull.

But organized. And Breivik was that—renting the farm, buying the six tons of fertilizer needed for his bomb, laying the groundwork for what he hoped would be his message to the world. He may have had a thinking disorder, but clearly not a planning disorder.

But sane?

There was an accepted standard in 19^th century British law for determining legal sanity: would the prisoner have committed the same actions if he had had a policeman standing next to him? (Think it was Burke’s Rule—damn, wish I had Internet!)

Well, Breivik called the Norwegian police twice from Utoya, attempting to surrender. The police, for whatever reason, blew him off. So he kept wandering around the island, killing kids.

OK—so he’s sane. 21 years of playing chess with paid friends and he’s out. What happens if he’s declared insane? 

Paradoxically, because in Norway some psychiatric disorders are considered incurable, Breivik could be held for the rest of his life in a psychiatric unit. So it’s 21 years in prison if sane, potentially life in a madhouse if he’s nuts.

Well, in Puerto Rico we might see it in another way. I once, in an unthinking moment, confessed that I was suicidal to a student.

“Ah,” she said. “That just means you’re not listening to God. And do you know why! You have a demonio! I know, my sister-in-law had one!”

It was therapeutic, actually. Made me so mad I stopped being depressed….

OK—maybe extreme. But one does get the feeling—since psychiatry seems to tell us so little here—that we should turn elsewhere.

Like where Breivik turned? Because he’s an arch-Christian (my apologies to Christians, who could rightly argue that he’s anything but!). But no matter, it could indeed be that there is malevolence, as there is madness. Seventy dead kids is a pretty strong argument for evil.

As well, there’s the real question—does it matter? Sane / insane—who cares? What does it matter why he did it? Stick him somewhere—anywhere!—and forget about him! Sure, Norway is a rich country—but the rich don’t stay rich by spending foolishly. Like hiring chess players for killers….

No good answers, here. So then the question becomes…

…have we asked the right questions?

*No, dammit, I haven’t checked this fact—no Internet. But it’s something outrageous….