A convicted priest is back at work. Child advocates want Pope Leo to act.

Washington Post

2 days ago

VATICAN CITY — He was the personification of shame in the Vatican, the lone prisoner in the three-cell jail of the world's smallest sovereign state. Now, the Rev. Carlo Alberto Capella — convicted of possessing and distributing a 'large quantity' of child pornography while serving as a Vatican diplomat in Washington — is presenting Pope Leo XIV, the new American pontiff, with one of the first challenges of his papacy.
Capella, a 58-year-old Italian priest, was investigated by U.S. and Canadian authorities for almost two years for gathering and sharing child pornography while a senior diplomat at the Holy See's embassy in Washington. In 2017, the U.S. State Department asked the Vatican to waive his diplomatic immunity, a request it denied. Instead, Capella was recalled to Rome, where he admitted to tracking down 'repugnant' images and, in a rare Vatican criminal trial a year later, was found guilty and sentenced to five years in prison.
In recent weeks, reports have emerged on Catholic blogs of his 2022 release and quiet return to work at the Holy See's Secretariat of State. His restoration to the powerful department has outraged advocates for the survivors of abuse by Catholic clerics. They insist that even though he was never accused of sexual abuse, a convicted priest who consumed child pornography has no place in a prominent Vatican office.
'Why not give him a job scrubbing floors, or bathrooms, at the Vatican,' said Peter Isely, a member of the Survivors Network of Those Abused by Priests, known as SNAP. 'Why is he still an official member of the state department? It's wrong on every level.'
As Pope Leo is confronted with demands to act, he becomes the fourth pontiff since the 1990s to face scrutiny, and potentially judgement, over how he handles the still-emerging cases of sexual crimes committed by clerics.
Pope John Paul II faced both contemporary and posthumous criticism for his handling of abuse cases. The issue dogged Benedict XVI even more, with a chorus of complaints seen as one of several factors contributing to his historic decision to retire. Pope Francis enacted reforms aimed at addressing the scandals, yet survivor groups routinely took him to task for failing to adopt a policy of zero tolerance including mandatory reporting to civil authorities.
Now advocate groups are looking to Leo to chart a different course, and even reverse Francis on the Capella case.
Capella's attorney, Roberto Borgogno, said in an interview that his client was released a year early, in the first part of 2022, for 'good behavior' and resumed work at the secretariat in January 2023. Pope Francis, Borgogno said, approved Capella's return and had at least one direct post-release conversation with him about his contrition.
'These are certainly decisions made logically, rationally, by the pontiff at the time,' Borgogno said.
The direct involvement of Francis and the specifics of Capella's living arrangement and monitoring have not been previously reported.
Capella, whose work is limited to checking translations and doing archival work, now lives just outside the Vatican, in a center for retired diplomats, his lawyer said. His work computer is monitored by Vatican officials, though he has an unmonitored personal cellphone.
Borgogno noted that while Capella had not been defrocked, Vatican authorities stripped him of his elevated title of monsignor. Though he returned to the secretariat in 2023, Capella was considered to be 'on probation' and only recently appeared on the Holy See's official personnel registry.
'It's merely a desk job,' Borgogno said. 'He won't be carrying out pastoral work; he won't be in contact with people on the outside.'
Through Borgogno, Capella declined an interview request.
The renewed focus on Capella comes as Archbishop Guy de Kerimel of Toulouse, France, faces criticism for appointing a priest, convicted of raping a 16-year-old boy in 1993, to the senior post of archdiocesan chancellor, citing the moral imperative of forgiveness. Victims groups are now calling on Leo to intervene in both instances.
'This is a test,' said Anne Barrett Doyle, co-director of BishopAccountability.org, a watchdog group that tracks abuse cases in the Catholic Church. 'To me, it brings up bigger questions of the Vatican's continued rejection of zero tolerance for sex offenders. I think these two things together really put all eyes on Pope Leo. We're all wondering if he will be tougher on sex abusers than Pope Francis was.'
The Secretariat of State did not respond to a detailed request for comment. A senior Vatican official who spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss a sensitive matter said he didn't know whether Leo had been briefed on the cases or intended to take specific action.
It's hardly unheard of for a pope to reverse a predecessor's decision — Francis, for instance, curbed use of the traditional Latin Mass after Pope Benedict XVI had relaxed restrictions on it.
'The pope clearly has jurisdiction in the matter … it will all be up to him,' said Giovanni Maria Vian, former editor of the Vatican's newspaper, L'Osservatore Romano, and a historian of early Christianity. 'He's likely aware of the [Capella] case. It wouldn't be unusual if he took action.'
The official described Capella's job as one in which he has minimal contact with the public and can 'earn his keep.' His return to work is a chance for Capella to 'redeem' himself, the official said, arguing that no punishment for such priests will ever 'be enough' for some victims advocates.
If everyone who does wrong 'gets shunned,' the official said, 'few of us would still be standing.'
The Washington Post reported in 2021 that Capella had been allowed to participate in a work-release program in which he spent mornings at the small Vatican office that sells certificates of papal blessings for personal occasions.
Now, Capella's case is once again underscoring how the Holy See routinely approaches wrongdoing by clerics — from the religious standpoint of mercy and a spirit of Catholic atonement. That vision has clashed with that of victims advocates, who see Capella's return to the secretariat in any capacity, as well as the senior appointment of a convicted rapist in France, as evidence of an overly lenient approach.
The demands for action have raised questions about how the new pope will handle perhaps the thorniest issue facing the faith he leads: tainted priests.
Under Francis, the Vatican sought to address widespread allegations of church complicity. In 2019, he convened an unprecedented summit on clerical sexual abuse, later imposing a sweeping law requiring church officials to report accusations of abuse or official cover-ups to their superiors.
But the law did not require allegations to be reported to civil authorities, and victims groups have pointed to more-recent scandals in Switzerland and elsewhere as evidence that not enough has changed. They say Leo should remove Capella from the secretariat and overturn the recent French appointment to show his commitment to zero tolerance.
Leo has a mixed record on handling abuse cases.
As a bishop in Peru, for instance, he won praise for moving against the Sodalitium Christianae Vitae — a secretive, archconservative Catholic group that expanded from Lima to several countries and was accused of systematic sexual and psychological abuse. At the same time, he was accused of lax oversight in the handling of abuse allegations by three women in his diocese of Chiclayo.
Last month, in a note honoring a Peruvian journalist whose work helped expose sexual abuse within the Sodalitium group, Leo called for a cultural shift inside the church.
It is necessary to instill 'throughout the Church a culture of prevention that does not tolerate any form of abuse: abuse of power or authority, of conscience or spirituality, of sexual abuse,' he wrote.