A 3rd prelate charged in Dominican Catholic Church’s biggest scandal

Santo Domingo.- La Altagracia province (east) diocese bishop Nicanor Peña suspended “a divinis" and filed charges against deacon Francisco Occi Reyes, for his ties to the pedophilia accusations against Jozef Wesolowski, the Vatican’s ousted ambassador to Dominican Republic.

In what has become the biggest ever scandal in Dominican Republic’s Catholic Church, Cardinal Nicolas de Jesus Lopez Rodriguez on Monday revealed that he works to identify the priests involved in the allegations, in which he has taken a "specially specific interest."

Quote by listin.com.do, Peña said his diocese is willing to cooperate with the authorities in the probe, while calling on all the faithful to prayer.

Lopez said he has never been indifferent to the allegations against Wesolowski.

"No one more than me is interested in such situations with the best response possible, and I’m also aware that that’s the attitude of the other bishops and priests, who are interested in achieving this and we hope that this is so."

The cardinal said that he aims to identify the priests amid the accusations in some parts of the country, but "I do not go around with a horn everywhere, because this requires discretion and even the victims themselves need to be protected."

“I have dealt with this in a clear, categorical manner, in a public document… from the onset once I knew it I went to speak to the Pope, I haven’t been indifferent on the issue,” added Lopez .

Occi Reyes becomes the third Catholic prelate in the widening scandal, which includes the Polish priest Wojiech Gil (Padre Alberto), charged with pedophilia and declared a fugitive by a Santiago Province court.