VATICAN CITY — A Catholic former archbishop accused of child sex offenses was found dead on Friday, the Vatican said, a month after he was hospitalized on the eve of his trial.
Jozef Wesolowski faced charges of paying boys for sexual acts, downloading and buying pedophile material, and offending Christian morality, in the first trial of its kind held by the Vatican against a high-ranking Catholic official.
A former papal ambassador to the Dominican Republic, Wesolowski appeared to have died of natural causes, the Vatican said in a statement.
The 67-year-old Pope was found dead in his rooms in the papal state, where he had been under arrest since September. An autopsy has been scheduled to take place later on Friday.
Wesolowski fell ill in July and was taken to hospital the day before his trial.This was seen as an important test of Pope Francis's drive to clean up the Catholic Church after child sex abuse scandals in several countries over many years.
Wesolowski served as Vatican ambassador in Santo Domingo for five years. He was recalled to Rome by the Vatican in 2013 and stripped of his duties after Dominican media said he paid boys to perform sexual acts, leading to a police investigation.
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