Caught lying and covering up how much he knew, the pope (Joe Ratzinger) is now faced with proof that he knowingly hid away a child molesting priest as an official in the Vatican amid allegations of widespread abuse.Worries about California priest came early in career
Gillian Flaccus & Brooke Donald (AP)
OAKLAND, California – Even in his seminary days in the early 1970s, there were questions about California priest Stephen Kiesle: Colleagues said he had trouble relating to adults, lacked spirituality, and didn't seem committed to anything but youth ministry.
Gillian Flaccus & Brooke Donald (AP)
OAKLAND, California – Even in his seminary days in the early 1970s, there were questions about California priest Stephen Kiesle: Colleagues said he had trouble relating to adults, lacked spirituality, and didn't seem committed to anything but youth ministry. Those colleagues, who helped make the case to the Vatican in 1981 seeking to let him leave the priesthood, said they were concerned before Kiesle was ordained, and more so after revelations Kiesle had molested children in his parish.
"He was not grown up. He spent more time with kids than with people his own age. You get suspicious of that. There's something wrong there," said John Cummins, former bishop in the Diocese of Oakland, now retired.
Still, future Pope Benedict XVI resisted pleas from the diocese to act on the case, according to a 1985 letter in Latin obtained by the AP that bore his signature as then-Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger.
It would take another two years before the Vatican doctrine watchdog office headed by Ratzinger would approve Kiesle's own request to leave the priesthood in 1987. More>>
- PHOTOS: Pope Joe ("Benedict") Ratzinger; 2002 law enforcement booking photo of former priest Stephen Kiesle (AP).
