Vatican Court Reopens Abuse Case Against a Former Pre-Seminary Student

(ZENIT News / Rome, 10.31.2026).- More than two years after a Vatican appeals court sentenced priest Gabriele Martinelli to two and a half years in prison for corruption of minors, the case has taken a new turn. The Vatican City State’s Court of Cassation has partially overturned the 2024 ruling and ordered a different panel of appeal judges to reconsider the case, reopening a dispute over the legal classification of the alleged abuse.

The decision concerns only the charge of corruption of minors. The Court of Cassation upheld the appeal brought by the prosecution, supported by the civil party’s lawyer, Laura Sgrò, who argued that the conduct attributed to Martinelli should have been examined as sexual violence rather than treated solely as corruption of minors. The court rejected Martinelli’s own appeal.

The ruling does not establish that Martinelli is guilty of sexual violence. Nor does it amount to a new conviction: it sends the case back to an Appeals Court composed of different judges, which must now reconsider the matters affected by the annulment. The full text of the Cassation decision has not been made public, leaving its precise legal reasoning unknown.

The judgment was signed by Cardinals Kevin Farrell, Augusto Paolo Lojudice and Ángel Fernández Artime, together with judges Patrizia Piccialli and Chiara Minelli. Its consequences are nevertheless substantial: the conviction handed down in January 2024 can no longer stand in its existing form, and the legal assessment of the events must be revisited.

The case concerns allegations involving the Pre-Seminary of St. Pius X, an institution that housed boys serving as altar servers during papal liturgies in St. Peter’s Basilica. Martinelli, now a priest of the Diocese of Como, had himself been a student there. The complaint concerned alleged conduct involving another student, identified as L.G., who was approximately seven months younger.

The judicial proceedings have followed a complicated course. In October 2021, the Vatican tribunal acquitted Martinelli of charges of sexual violence and indecent acts, citing insufficient evidence. It also declared the prosecution for corruption of minors time-barred in relation to the period between August 2008 and March 2009. Enrico Radice, the seminary’s former rector, was also tried on allegations of aiding the conduct. Some accusations against him were declared time-barred, while he was acquitted or found not punishable in relation to others.

That first judgment was challenged by both the public prosecutor and the civil party. On January 23, 2024, the Vatican Appeals Court, then presided over by Spanish Bishop Alejandro Arellano Cedillo, reversed part of the ruling and found Martinelli guilty of corruption of minors for events said to have occurred between August 9, 2008, and March 19, 2009. It imposed a prison sentence of two years and six months and a fine of 1,000 euros. The court nevertheless maintained the acquittal on the charges of sexual violence and indecent acts, again citing insufficient evidence, and declared the civil party’s compensation claim inadmissible.

The prosecution’s challenge to the legal classification of the alleged conduct has now brought the case back before the appeals process. The distinction is not merely technical: the offence under which conduct is prosecuted determines how the alleged acts are legally understood and what questions the court must examine. The new panel will have to address the issues identified by the Cassation ruling, although the precise scope of its instructions cannot be established without the full judgment.

The allegations first attracted wider public attention in 2017, when former Polish seminarian Kamil Jarzembowski spoke publicly about alleged abuse at the institution. His account was featured on the Italian television programme Le Iene and later discussed in journalist Gianluigi Nuzzi’s book Original Sin. In April 2018, L.G. formally lodged a complaint with Vatican authorities, setting in motion the criminal proceedings against Martinelli and Radice.

In 2021, while the case was unfolding, Pope Francis ordered the Pre-Seminary of St. Pius X to move outside Vatican territory. The institution had been run by the Don Folci Association, linked to the Diocese of Como. Following the 2024 conviction, the diocese confirmed that precautionary canonical measures remained in force against Martinelli and Radice, including restrictions on the exercise of priestly ministry and prohibitions on pastoral activities involving minors and vulnerable adults.

The latest ruling therefore leaves the case unresolved after years of investigation and litigation.

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