At Vatican trial, former envoy tells of viewing and sharing child porn while in D.C.
By Chico Harlan June 22, 2018 Washington Post
VATICAN CITY — On the first day of his criminal trial inside the walls of this city-state, a longtime Holy See priest-diplomat said Friday that he had viewed and shared child pornography while stationed in Washington, D.C., in an activity he described as “compulsive.”
Monsignor Carlo Capella said that while struggling two years ago with his new posting in Washington, he would send and receive images in one-on-one chats on Tumblr, a blogging site. Capella said the chats were short but “vulgar.”
“In retrospect,” Capella said, “I can see how repugnant they were.”
Capella’s trial, which will continue Saturday, comes after his indictment on charges of possessing and sharing child pornography and marks a major test of how the Vatican’s justice system will address one aspect of the abuse that has deeply scarred the Catholic Church.
The church has been accused by critics for years of shielding alleged perpetrators from harsh punishment, and the Vatican — which rebuffed a request from the United States to drop Capella’s diplomatic immunity and have him prosecuted in a U.S. court — is under pressure to handle the case with transparency. Several pool reporters were permitted in the courtroom, where three judges also heard testimony from a Vatican police investigator, who described several dozen examples of child pornography found on Capella’s electronics. . . .
. . . The church is facing high-profile cases across the world, including one involving Cardinal Theodore McCarrick, the former archbishop of Washington, who was removed from the ministry this week . . . .
. . . Peter Saunders, a founding member of Ending Clergy Abuse, who said he hoped Capella would be dealt with something other than “internal golf club rules.”
Wearing a black suit and a clerical collar, Capella on Friday said he’d had a long career “beyond reproach,” . . .
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