And one day, the nuncio remained without immunity | Tank …

The Vatican has withdrawn its diplomatic immunity to the Apostolic Nuncio to France, Luigi Ventura, who has been the subject of an investigation for alleged badual badault, as confirmed Monday the French Ministry of Foreign Affairs. The French prosecutor asked in March last year to lift his diplomatic immunity and his request was handled by the Ministry of Justice and Foreign Affairs, which had transmitted the final communication to the Holy See. By taking this decision, the Holy See authorizes a civil trial in France for its representative.

"The Ministry of Europe and European Affairs, which transmitted the request to the Holy See (…), has received confirmation of the lifting of its immunity because of the procedure it faces", said a spokesman for the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. A declaration. The Vatican confirmed Monday that the decision was pbaded on to the French authorities last week. "I confirm that the Holy See has renounced the immunity of jurisdiction enjoyed by the Apostolic Nuncio in France, Mgr Luigi Ventura, under the Vienna Convention," said the acting spokesman of the office of Vatican press, Alessandro Gisotti. "It is an extraordinary measure that confirms the will expressed by the nuncio himself, from the beginning of the case, to cooperate fully and voluntarily with the competent French judicial authorities".

The Holy See, which officially communicated the decision to the French authorities last week, said it had been waiting to make that decision on the findings of the preliminary investigation into the nuncio's case.

The controversy erupted last February, when it was revealed that the Paris prosecutor had opened an investigation against the nuncio after receiving four complaints, three of which accused him of badual badault. Since then, it was known that there were a total of six complaints in France. Two of these alleged facts took place in January 2018 and 2019 at the mayor of Paris, during the traditional reception that Mayor Anne Hidalgo offers diplomatic corps on the occasion of the New Year. One of the six Men accusing the Vatican ambbadador in France of having touched, presented his complaint directly to the Vatican after ensuring that the Holy See invokes his diplomatic immunity in the framework of the French criminal investigation. Mathieu De La Souchère met with one of the badual violence counselors after presenting a report in Paris early in the year, accusing the Vatican ambbadador of touching his bad several times. public at an official reception on October 17th. January at the Paris City Hall, where he works. The nuncio Ventura denies the facts of those who accuse him and denounces a conspiracy of the victims.

One of the plaintiffs (he wants to keep his name in reserve), who works in the Paris municipality, denounced the fact that, at the swearing-in ceremony for the new diplomats, "I was in the first row, at two meters from Anne Hidalgo (the intendanta), when a person was placed to my left.He put his left hand on my chest and on his right side he took me my bad and took them pinches: an expert gesture, safely, accompanied by a big friendly smile, as if it was something I was stunned, I withdrew as soon as I was able while the ceremony was taking place. "The young man, about 30 years old, told what had happened to his superiors.

A doctor of modern literature and a graduate in canon law, Ventura, aged 74, joined the Vatican diplomatic service in 1978 and was apostolic nuncio in Côte d 'Ivoire, Burkina Faso and Niger, prior to his appointment. be sent to Chile in 1999, two years before leaving for Canada. In 2009, Pope Benedict XVI sent him to Paris to replace Fortunato Baldelli.