Journalist: Arrest of priest sought by Dominican Republic surprised Poland

Santo Domingo.- Polish journalist Miroslaw Wekly on Monday said his country’s public opinion was surprised with the arrest of countryman priest Wojciech Gil (Padre Alberto) on Sunday, on charges of sexually abusing seven boys in the Dominican Republic.

Speaking on Skype from Krakow, the journalist said he and other colleagues had traveled to the mountain town of Juncalito, northern Santiago province, and other places where the prelate allegedly committed the abuses. “Gil claimed that the charges against him were a plot by drug traffickers in the region but when I was in Juncalito, no one mentioned this, and the priest mentioned this only after his arrest.”

Wekly, speaking on CDN channel 37, added that Gil is expected to be interrogated in the Polish capital of Warsaw.

As to the case of Pope Francis’ ex-envoy to Dominican Republic, the also Polish Jozef Wesolowski, the journalist said the bishop will likely be tried in the Vatican, “but he won’t return to Poland.”