LOS ANGELES (AP) — The Vatican’s lawyer says then-Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger told a California bishop to make sure a priest with a history of sexually molesting children didn’t abuse while the church worked to defrock him.
Attorney Jeffrey Lena was responding to a 1985 letter obtained by The Associated Press on Friday in which the future pope said more time was needed to study the case of the Rev. Stephen Kiesle (KEEZ’-lee).
Lena says Ratzinger urged the bishop to give Kiesle “as much paternal care as possible.” Lena says that was a way of saying the bishop was responsible for ensuring Kiesle didn’t reoffend.
Lena says there were no known cases of abuse by Kiesle between 1981, when his diocese first recommended he be laicized, and 1987 when he was removed from the priesthood.
