Local Woman Asks for Pope’s Resignation
“Another woman, the latest to accuse the Pope of covering up the molestation of church pastors, says she was abused by a former East Bay priest. She is demanding the resignation of Pope Benedict the Sixteenth”
“Melinda Costello, who now lives in San Francisco, was a little girl when she says she molested by Stephen Kiesele, the priest at her church in Fremont. It took almost 20 years for Kiesele to be defrocked even though he was accused of molesting others.
Now Costello is the latest to express her shock that then-Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger — now the Pope— didn’t move quickly to remove Kiesele from the priesthood.
“I am appalled to find out that Ratzinger knew about Kiesele and that he did absolutely nothing about it for four or five years,” she said. “He was more concerned about the face of the church than about children of the church.”
Would the facts of this case interest you? Or do you prefer the NYT spin?
How do you defend yourself against charges that are 40 years old?
We had a beloved priest that was accused in this way. Luckily for him, he wasn’t at the school the years the alleged victim was. She apparently lied or had him confused with someone else. If he had been at the school, his life would have ended even though he was innocent.
“We must personally and collectively declare that we very much doubt the veracity of the pope and those of church authority who are defending him or even falling on the sword on his behalf,” said the priest, the Rev. James J. Scahill of St. Michael’s Parish in East Longmeadow. “It is beginning to become evident that for decades, if not centuries, church leadership covered up the abuse of children and minors to protect its institutional image and the image of priesthood...” ...Her account came on the same day a priest in Massachusetts used his sermon to condemn the church’s handling of the broader sexual abuse scandal, describing some in the clergy as “felons” and suggesting that Benedict resign.