Archbishop given Trotsky treatment in Vatican photo after abuse claims

[Warren Stupidity]

It is the sort of practice normally expected of paranoid regimes such as North Korea, Mao's China or the former Soviet Union, but a disgraced Polish archbishop who is being investigated for child sex abuse has been subjected to a Trotsky-style rubbing out in an official Catholic Church photo.
Archbishop Jozef Wesolowski served as a papal envoy in the Dominican Republic but was recalled to Rome last year amid claims that he sexually abused a number of children in the slums of Santo Domingo, the capital.
He appears to have been “purged” from a photograph of members of the bishops’ conference of the Caribbean country.

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/europe/italy/10584681/Archbishop-given-Trotsky-treatment-in-Vatican-photo-after-abuse-claims.html

[MADem]

1. Good. Who wants to look at his molesting face?

It's not like, in this austere environment, the Pope is gonna pay for them to get together for a new photo, after all. He wants them farting through cotton, not silk, these days.

Gotta wonder, though, how that emeritus bishop felt about having his head chopped off and placed on that perv's body?

[cbayer]

2. I agree. They have charged him, brought him to the Vatican,

have him sequestered and are going to try him.

And they sound serious about it.

I think it's great that they are removing him from photographs.

Nice to see you back in here, MADem.

[Brettongarcia]

4. Hopefully, the vatican punishes him. But given "forgiveness"? Often it protects them from arrest

... in their own country.

They are safe from their own country's prosecution, in the Vatican. Cf. our American cardinal Bernard Law; who went to the Vatican, probably to escape prosecution in America.

Do any countries have firm extradition treaties with the Vatican? Just to make sure. I'd feel more confident if the archbishop was returned to the country where he committed the offense; for lfull egal prosecution.

[cbayer]

6. The statements from the Vatican, admittedly sparse, have used some pretty strong

language about this guy.

I don't know about extradition treaties. IIRC, this is the guy Poland is trying to get, though it's unclear why they want him. They may be the ones who want to shelter him (he's Polish).

I'd have to do more research, but I think the Vatican took him out of the Dominican Republic because they were not going to prosecute him. If that's the case, then I would rather him be at the Vatican.

[okasha]

3. "Purged" does seem the appropriate word here.

[Warren Stupidity]

7. Seriously?

So you are fine with the Vatican pretending this shithead was not in the inner circle. AFAIC this is the same old pattern of behavior: shuffling deckchairs, hoping the problem will disappear. This is the opposite of transparency, it is obfuscation.

[Leontius]

5. They do make Stalin proud.

[rug]

8. So where's the doctored photograph?

The Telegraph, that paragon of journalism, ran this caption:

Archbishop Jozef Wesolowski (ringed, left) appears to have been 'purged' from a photograph of members of the bishops’ conference in the Dominican Repulbic(sic)

Looks like he's still there. And why is the other chap ringed?

Uncle Joe at least had a before and after, even without photoshop.