Former Vatican ambassador to France convicted of sexual assault

A FORMER Vatican ambassador to France has been convicted of sexual assault by a Paris court on Wednesday, December 16.

76-year-old Luigi Ventura, who was able to be prosecuted when his immunity was lifted by the Vatican in July last year, was handed a suspended 8-month prison sentence after being found guilty of assaulting five men in 2018 and 2019.

The case erupted in February 2019 amid multiple sex scandals affecting the Catholic Church and the five men came forward stating Ventura, who denied any wrongdoing, had put his “hands on [their] buttocks” during his public diplomatic duties in France.

The former Vatican ambassador did not attend the hearing as, according to a doctor’s note, France’s resurgence of the coronavirus pandemic made “it was too dangerous for him to travel from Rome to Paris for the trial”.

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