Following an autopsy performed after former apostolic nuncio to the Dominican Republic, Józef Wesołowski, died last Friday, Aug. 28, it has been confirmed that the accused child abuser died of natural causes, specifically a heart attack.
The Vatican announced the results in a statement released by the Holy See Press Office on Saturday.
The late nuncio who was awaiting trial on charges of pedophilia and possession of child pornography.
“The Office of the Vatican Promoter of Justice, acting under the competence of its authority,” the communique stated, “ordered an autopsy to be done on the deceased’s body and appointed a commission of three experts, led by Professor John Arcudi, Professor of Forensic Medicine at Rome’s Tor Vergata University.
“The autopsy took place yesterday (Friday) afternoon and, from initial examination of the corpse, it was determined the natural cause of death was attributed to a heart attack. In the coming days, the Office of the Promoter of Justice will receive further results of of the usual laboratory tests carried out by the Forensic medical commission,” it concluded.
On Friday, the press office reported that Wesolowski had died, explaining that initial investigations done by Vatican authorities “indicate that he died of natural causes” in the Vatican in the early hours of the morning. The Promoter of Justice, it had noted, ordered the autopsy whose results would be communicated as soon as possible. It added that the Holy Father was informed of the death.
Wesolowski was set to begin trial in the Vatican on July 11 but had to be hospitalized in intensive care, resulting in the suspension of his trial.
He was treated due to “a serious drop in blood pressure, due to the heat and tension, as well as his age.”
Wesolowski was facing three criminal charges. The former archbishop had been accused of: acquisition via the Internet of child pornography, representing minors under 18, in more or less explicit obscene poses; sexual abuse of boys between the ages of 13 and 16, in one case perpetrated in complicity with one of his collaborators, the former deacon Francisco Javier Occi Reyes; receiving stolen goods, for having acquired, received and hidden the pornographic material in question; grave psychological damages of the adolescent victims of the abuses; offense to religion and to Christian morality, for having accessed child pornography websites also during his stay in Rome.
Wesolowski was laicised in June of 2014 after the first trial. He had been recalled from from diplomatic service in August 2013, after Pope Francis was informed of rumors that the nuncio had sexually abused teenage boys in the Dominican Republic.
