The Court of Cassation of the Vatican City State has partially annulled the sentence that convicted priest Gabriele Martinelli in 2024 to two years and six months in prison for corruption of minors at the San Pio X Preseminary, known for hosting the so-called «Pope’s altar boys.» The Vatican’s highest court has ordered the case to be re-examined by an Appeals Court composed of different judges.
According to the Italian newspaper Il Messaggero, in a report picked up on Wednesday, October 21 by Vida Nueva, the annulment affects exclusively the crime of corruption of minors. The Cassation has upheld the appeal filed by the prosecution, which questioned the criminal classification of the reported facts, and has rejected the appeal filed by Martinelli.
The ruling is signed by Cardinals Kevin Farrell, Augusto Paolo Lojudice, and Ángel Fernández Artime, along with judges Patrizia Piccialli and Chiara Minelli. The appeal had been filed by the Vatican’s promoter of justice and by Laura Sgrò, lawyer for the civil party, who argued that the conduct attributed to the priest should be examined as a crime of sexual violence and not solely as corruption of minors.
The new court must rule on the aspects affected by the annulment. The full Cassation ruling has not been made public, so the specific legal grounds that motivated the decision remain unknown.
A two-and-a-half-year sentence partially annulled
The case dates back to the alleged abuses committed at the San Pio X Preseminary, an institution that for years operated within the Vatican and hosted young people who served as altar boys in the liturgical celebrations at St. Peter’s Basilica.
Martinelli, currently a priest of the Italian diocese of Como, had been a student at the center. The complaint referred to alleged acts committed against another student, identified by the initials L. G., who was approximately seven months younger than him.
On October 6, 2021, the Tribunal of the Vatican City State acquitted Martinelli of the charges of carnal violence and lewd acts due to insufficient evidence. It also declared the criminal action for the crime of corruption of minors extinguished by prescription for the period between August 2008 and March 2009.
Priest Enrico Radice, former rector of the preseminary, was also tried in that proceeding for alleged abetting. The judges declared some of the facts attributed to him prescribed and acquitted or declared him not punishable regarding the remaining charges.
The first-instance ruling was appealed by the public prosecution and the civil party.
On January 23, 2024, the Vatican Court of Appeals, presided over by Spanish Bishop Alejandro Arellano Cedillo, partially modified the ruling and found Martinelli guilty of corruption of minors for acts committed between August 9, 2008, and March 19, 2009.
The sentence was two years and six months in prison and a fine of one thousand euros. It was the first conviction handed down by a Vatican court for abuses committed within the territory of the State.
However, the Court of Appeals upheld the acquittal for insufficient evidence regarding the charges of carnal violence and lewd acts. It also declared inadmissible the request for compensation filed by the civil party.
The prosecution questioned the classification of the facts
The disagreement over the criminal classification of the reported conduct has been one of the central points of the appeals filed before the Cassation.
The public prosecution and the civil party’s representation considered that the facts should not be framed solely under the crime of corruption of minors, but rather should be examined under the charge of sexual violence.
With the new ruling, the conviction for corruption of minors is annulled and another appeals chamber must intervene. The decision does not constitute a conviction for sexual violence, but rather returns to the competent court the examination of the aspects covered by the Cassation ruling.
A case reported in 2018
The first accusations about what happened at the San Pio X Preseminary gained public notoriety in 2017, when Kamil Jarzembowski, a former Polish student of the institution, reported alleged abuses that allegedly took place at the center.
His testimony was broadcast by the Italian television program Le Iene and later included in the book Peccato originale, by journalist Gianluigi Nuzzi.
In April 2018, the former student identified as L. G. filed a complaint with the Vatican justice system, which led to the criminal proceedings against Martinelli and Radice.
The preseminary was managed by the Don Folci Work, linked to the diocese of Como. In 2021, during the judicial process, Pope Francis ordered the transfer of the institution outside Vatican territory.
Following the 2024 conviction, the diocese of Como confirmed that certain canonical precautionary measures remained in force regarding Martinelli and Radice, including restrictions on the exercise of priestly ministry and the prohibition of pastoral activities with minors and vulnerable adults.
The Court of Cassation’s decision now opens a new judicial phase in a process that began more than eight years ago and whose resolution on the crime of corruption of minors is once again pending an appeals ruling.
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