Monsignor Carlo Alberto Capella pleaded guilty on Friday, the opening day of the court hearing, saying he had gone through a “personal crisis” and felt “useless” as a counsellor at the embassy.
The 51-year-old told the three lay Italian judges at the tiny courtroom in the Vatican City that he had started looking at child pornography online on Tumblr in July 2016 and exchanged pictures with other users.
The Vatican gendarmerie said more than 40 pornographic photos and videos were found on the priest’s mobile phone.
The US State Department had told the Vatican last August that an embassy diplomat may have violated the law with child pornography pictures.
The Vatican did not answer an official request to lift his diplomatic immunity, State Department sources said, and the priest was recalled to Rome last September.
He was placed in custody in April after an inquiry had been opened.
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