Pedophilia case rocks Dominican Republic’s Catholic Church

Santo Domingo.- Dominican Republic’s Catholic bishops on Thursday pulled the rug out from Agripino Nuñez Collado one of their most prominent colleagues, in the wake of an exploding scandal centered on former nuncio Josef Wesolowski, removed by the Vatican after reports of alleged sexual abuse of minors.

The bishops grouped in the Dominican Episcopal Conference said Nuñez doesn’t speak for Catholic Church on recent cases of priests accused of pedophilia, including Wesolowski.

In a statement read by spokesperson and priest Manuel Ruiz at Episcopal Conference headquarters, the bishops said that only Church representatives responsible for dioceses can state its position, which isn’t Nuñez’s case.

On Tuesday Nuñez became the Dominican Church’s first senior prelate to publicly acknowledge the pedophilia allegations against the Vatican’s representative, even stating that Wesolowski was “traveling in bad steps."

Ruiz accused the media of “instigating and stoking the intrigue,” adding that “there’s no evidence e against Wesolowski.”

Call for prosecution

The Dominican bishops also asked the courts to prosecute and –if found guilty- punish Wesolowski and the other priests linked to pedophilia and sexual abuse of minors.