The Vatican's former ambassador to France was handed an eight-month suspended jail term at a Paris court on Wednesday after being convicted of sexual assault against five men. Italian-born archbishop Luigi Ventura was found to have groped the men at meetings in 2018 and 2019, the affair coming to light in early 2019 as the Catholic Church faced several other sex scandals. The Vatican agreed to lift Ventura's diplomatic immunity, the first time it had made such a concession. Ventura, who was not present at the sentencing or during the November 10 trial, was ordered to pay 13,000 euros in damages and will now appear on France's sex offenders register. The police were alerted after a senior figure in the Paris mayor's office filed a complaint about being groped during a public function. Another four men came forward to allege similar offences at other public events, including a 20-year-old trainee priest who said he had been groped several times during and after Mass. Ventura, who had been stationed in Paris since 2009, resigned last December after reaching the 75-year age limit for the job. The Catholic Church has been rocked by a wave of revelations detailing decades of sexual abuse by clerics around the world, mostly against minors. Pope Francis has announced a policy of zero tolerance towards offenders. cm-alv/jj/jxb