Former nuncio to France sentenced to 8 months in prison with suspended sentence

A Paris criminal court on Wednesday sentenced a former nuncio to France to an eight-month prison sentence suspended for sexual assault.

The court found Archbishop Luigi Ventura guilty of placing his hands on the buttocks of five men while carrying out his public diplomatic functions.

He was sentenced to pay 13.000 euros ($ 15.800) to four of the men and 9.000 euros ($ 10.900) in legal fees, according to AFP.

Ventura's lawyer, Solange Doumic, told the French newspaper Le Figaro that the Italian archbishop was considering an appeal.

Ventura was absent for the trial, which took place on November 10. A doctor said it was too dangerous for Ventura, 76, who lives in Rome, to travel to Paris as coronavirus was on the rise in France. He was not present for the verdict.

Doumic argued last month that the charges against his client were minor and had been exaggerated to become "the Vatican trial, of hidden homosexuality in the Vatican."

He said Ventura touched men's hips or backs, but the gestures only lasted a few seconds and were never sexual in intention. He also said he may not have realized they would be considered inappropriate. He added that after Ventura was operated on for a brain tumor in 2016, he had some behavioral problems.

Prosecutor Alexis Bouroz has called for a 10-month suspended prison sentence for Ventura. In France, sexual assault can be punished with up to five years in prison and a fine of up to 75.000 euros (approximately $ 88.600).

The archbishop was first accused in early 2019 of inappropriately touching a staff member at a reception on January 17, 2019 for Paris Mayor Anne Hidalgo's New Year's address. The charge was then investigated by the Parisian authorities for several months.

In February 2019, a second employee of the City of Paris filed a complaint against Ventura, concerning an incident that occurred in January 2018.

Two other complaints were filed with the authorities, one related to a reception in a luxury hotel in Paris and another, by a seminarian, linked to a mass, both of which took place in December 2018.

Le Figaro reported that a fifth man, a civil servant, reported an incident without filing a complaint.

The Vatican lifted Ventura's diplomatic immunity in July 2019, paving the way for a trial in French courts.

He resigned as nuncio to France in December 2019 at the age of 75, after serving for 10 years.

Ventura was ordained a priest of the Diocese of Brescia in 1969. He entered the diplomatic service of the Holy See in 1978 and was stationed in Brazil, Bolivia and the United Kingdom. From 1984 to 1995 he was appointed to serve at the Secretariat of State in the Section for Relations with States.

After his episcopal consecration in 1995, Ventura served as nuncio to the Ivory Coast, Burkina Faso, Niger, Chile and Canada. He was appointed apostolic nuncio to France in September 2009.