Archbishop Luigi Ventura, who was not a Vatican nuncio in France, has been sentenced this Wednesday by the Paris Correctional Court to one month in prison and will pay 13,000 euros in compensation for the complainants and another 9,000 euros in court costs their place proved, according to the sentence, the sexual assaults for which they had been reported.
The former nuncio in France until December 2019, equivalent to the Holy See’s ambassador to the country, was accused of uttering touches on the buttocks of four adults against his will.
The Paris prosecutor’s office had requested ten months of pressure for the apostolic excess in France, the Italian prelate who resigned in December last year.
According to local reports, the October sentence set for 75-year-old Ventura, who will remain in Rome during the conduct of the trial for health reasons before the Covid-19 health emergency, will be suspended. That way, he won’t go to jail unless he commits misconduct. However, Ventura has been included in the National Judicial File of Authors of Sexual Offenses (Fijais).
In an unprecedented move, in July 2019, the Vatican lifted Ventura’s diplomatic immunity to allow civilian authorities to proceed with the investigation into alleged “sexual assaults,” a spokesman for the French Ministry of Relations said at the time. Exteriors.