A Polish cardinal who was accused of sexually abusing a minor has died at the age of 97, Poland's Roman Catholic Church said on Monday.
Cardinal Henryk Gulbinowicz, the former archbishop of Wroclaw, had been disciplined after an investigation into "allegations regarding the cardinal's past", the Vatican's nunciature (embassy) in Poland said earlier this month.
The Church said on Twitter that he had died on Monday morning. Gulbinowicz had been in hospital in a serious condition for more than a week.
Last year, Poland's Gazeta Wyborcza newspaper published an article written by a man who accused Gulbinowicz of sexually abusing him when he was a minor in the 1990s and a student in a Catholic seminary. The case was brought to prosecutors but they could not proceed because of the statue of limitations. At the time, the cardinal's lawyer said the accusations were false.
However, Gulbinowicz was barred from practising his ministry in public and ordered to contribute to a fund to help victims of sexual abuse, the nunciature said. It also said he would be denied burial in what was once his cathedral, a tradition in Roman Catholic countries.
Źródło: Reuters