The defrocked bishop and former Papal Nuncio arrested by Vatican officials last week reportedly had more than 100,000 child pornography images on the hard drive of his computer. Jozef Wesolowski is the highest-ranking Vatican official ever to be investigated for sex abuse.

Vatican detectives examined the computer that Wesolowski used in his office in Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic when he was the Vatican ambassador from 2008 to 2012, and made the discovery.  Another 45,000 photos reportedly had been deleted and a second stash of illicit photos was on a laptop computer Wesolowski used while traveling, according to the Corriere della Sera newspaper.

Wesolowski is being held in a tiny room in the basement of the Collegio dei Penitenzieri, a convent located in the same building hosting the Vatican's court and military police in Santa Marta Square.  It’s not clear why he’s not being detained in the Vatican jail.  If he’s convicted under the new child sex abuse laws instituted by former Pope Benedict, Wesolowski could serve seven years. 

But if he’s extradited to the Dominican Republic for trial, that sentence could be 50 years.  And there are other countries that would like to talk to him.  When Wesolowski was recalled to the Vatican a year ago amid accusations he hired child prostitutes in the DR, Warsaw’s attorney general filed an immediate request for the native Pole’s extradition. 

The Vatican instantly refused that request in 2013.  But since then, Pope Francis has gotten tougher on sex abusers in the clergy, comparing the “ugly crime” to performing a “satanic mass”.  This Pope has been full of surprises,