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A former Vatican diplomat, Monsignor Carlo Capella, has been sentenced to five years in prison for possessing and sharing child pornography materials
Tribunal President Giuseppe Dalla Torre read out the verdict Saturday after a two-day trial.
On Friday when his criminal trial began, Monsignor Capella admitted that he viewed and shared child pornography while stationed in Washington, D.C., in an activity he described as “compulsive.”
“In retrospect,” Capella said, “I can see how repugnant they were.”
Capella on Saturday appealed for lenience, saying the episode was just a “bump in the road” of a priestly vocation he loved and wanted to continue.
He said that while struggling two years ago with his new posting in Washington, he would send and receive images in one-on-one chats on Tumblr, a blogging site. Capella said the chats were short but “vulgar.”
Dalla Torre said that Capella continued to access the material even after he had been recalled by the Vatican in August 2017.
More than 50 photos, films and Japanese animation were found on Capella’s cellphone, an iCloud and Tumblr account.