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On Wednesday, a Paris court sentenced the former Vatican ambassador to France to eight months in prison after being convicted of sexual assault on five men.
The court found that Italian-born bishop Luigi Ventura attempted to touch the men during meetings between 2018 and 2019, and the case appeared to the public in early 2019 with the Catholic Church facing several similar cases.
The Vatican agreed to lift Ventura’s diplomatic immunity, the first time the Holy See had taken such a step.
Ventura was absent from the verdict and other court sessions that began on November 10, and the French court also fined him 13,000 euros in damages, in addition to his name being included in the list of sex offenders in France.
Police were first notified of the case after a high-ranking Paris municipal employee filed a complaint about being groped during a public event.
Four other men made similar accusations on other occasions, including a twenty-year-old trained priest who said the papal ambassador touched him multiple times during and after Mass.
Ventura, who was appointed to Paris since 2009 at the end of December, resigned after reaching 75 years, the retirement age for the position he held.
The Catholic Church had witnessed the disclosure of cases of sexual abuse that continued for decades by clergymen around the world, especially affecting minors.
Pope Francis declared a zero tolerance policy towards sexual offenders.
