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AP EXCLUSIVE: Future pope stalled pedophile case (California priest was eventually defrocked)
AP on Yahoo ^ | 4/9/10 | Gillian Flaccus - ap

Posted on 04/09/2010 11:02:30 AM PDT by NormsRevenge

LOS ANGELES – The future Pope Benedict XVI resisted pleas to defrock a California priest with a record of sexually molesting children, citing concerns including "the good of the universal church," according to a 1985 letter bearing his signature.

The correspondence, obtained by The Associated Press, is the strongest challenge yet to the Vatican's insistence that Benedict played no role in blocking the removal of pedophile priests during his years as head of the Catholic Church's doctrinal watchdog office.

The letter, signed by then-Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger, was typed in Latin and is part of years of correspondence between the Diocese of Oakland and the Vatican about the proposed defrocking of the Rev. Stephen Kiesle.

The Vatican refused to comment on the contents of the letter Friday, but a spokesman confirmed it bore Ratzinger's signature.

(Excerpt) Read more at news.yahoo.com ...


TOPICS: Culture/Society; Foreign Affairs; News/Current Events
KEYWORDS: benedict; benedictxvi; california; catholic; kiesle; oakland; pedophile; pedophilepriests; pedophiles; pope; ratzinger; scandal; stalled; stephenkiesle; vatican
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1 posted on 04/09/2010 11:02:30 AM PDT by NormsRevenge
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Please read the entire article before ya rip the Vatican.


2 posted on 04/09/2010 11:03:35 AM PDT by NormsRevenge (Semper Fi ... Godspeed .. Monthly Donor Onboard .. Chuck DeVore - CA Senator. Believe.)
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To: NYer; Salvation; Petronski; narses

Ping of interest.


3 posted on 04/09/2010 11:06:14 AM PDT by Ultra Sonic 007 (To view the FR@Alabama ping list, click on my profile!)
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To: NormsRevenge
WE should round up the anti catholic haters and their antisemitic brothers in arms and ship them off to Iran to live with their totally screwed up Muslim brothers.
4 posted on 04/09/2010 11:06:57 AM PDT by Hans
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To: NormsRevenge

I gotta tell you that I don’t like what I’m reading, and I also like less, in light of this, that Il Papa moved the metropolitan* (Levada) into his former office at the CDC.

(*Oakland is a suffragan diocese in the Metropolitan of the archdiocese of San Francisco.)


5 posted on 04/09/2010 11:11:14 AM PDT by dangus
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To: NormsRevenge

AP has ignored 40 years of a much larger scale abuse in America’s Public Schools.


6 posted on 04/09/2010 11:12:50 AM PDT by G Larry (DNC is comprised of REGRESSIVES!)
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To: G Larry

Who believes the timing around easter is a mere coincidence?


7 posted on 04/09/2010 11:22:45 AM PDT by Walkingfeather
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To: NormsRevenge
I read the article.

There is either something going on here with at least some of these accusations being credible or this is one of the most highly coordinated and cynical attacks on the papacy since Humanae vitae.

8 posted on 04/09/2010 11:23:16 AM PDT by johniegrad
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To: Hans

“....ship them off to Iran to live with their totally screwed up Muslim brothers.”

.
Why ship them all the way to Iran? Their totally screwed up Muslim brothers are living right here.


9 posted on 04/09/2010 11:26:18 AM PDT by 353FMG (What else can Islam possibly contribute to America other than its destruction?)
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To: NormsRevenge

This renewed assault on the Pope orchestrated largely by the NYT should be taken for exactly what it is: An effort to destroy the traditional Catholic Church and make it little different the mainline Protestant religions.

Because the Pope is staunch traditionalist and supports the efforts of traditional Catholics, he has come into the crosshairs of the Left.

Most of the cases we read in the paper about abusive priests happened decades ago and the depraved priests have since been removed from their ministries. I support punishing ALL child molestors to the fullest extent of the law.

But for people who ARE truly concerned about this issue, you should focus most of your attention and energy where the problem is mostly occurring these days: In our public schools.

I think the reforms of Vatican II greatly diminished the standards and discipline of the Catholic Church. While it is true that pedophile priests existed in the Church prior to Vatican II in 1963, the vast majority of priests involved came into the Church after the Second Vatican Council. Standards were lowered and a number of depraved individuals entered into the priesthood who had no business being there in the first place.

Since the pedophile priest scandal erupted, the Church has in fact implemented comprehensive reforms designed to prevent this from occurring again. Candidates for vocations are now subject to thorough psychiatric review and screened to ensure they are capable of celibate life.

I am a Eucharistic Minister at my parish. And even my archdiocese, mere volunteers such as myself were subject to intense training on child sexual abuse and recognizing its symptoms. I can only imagine the intensive screening and training candidates for religious orders receive these days.

Of course we are ALL sinners. The Catholic Church is a man-made institution. There are always temptations. There is always weakness and sin. A few rotten apples that slip through the cracks always cast a negative shadow on the overwhelming majority of priests and nuns who are outstanding selfless servants of God who devote their whole lives to the Church and serving others.

So let us always be cognizant of the true agenda of those who ceaselessly attack the Holy Father. There agenda is to destroy the traditional Holy Catholic Church.


10 posted on 04/09/2010 11:30:01 AM PDT by Gen. Burkhalter
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To: Gen. Burkhalter; G Larry

Sorry but “It happened a long time ago” and “everybody does it” are really piss poor excuses.

The point is, the current sitting Pope appears to be no different than Cardinal Law when it comes to the lax punishment and or non-removal of pedophile priests.

You can call me a bigot, liar, anti-Catholic, slanderer, etc. all you want but the RCC has a real problem on their hands and sticking their head in the sand and blaming others is not going to make it go away.


11 posted on 04/09/2010 11:37:18 AM PDT by TSgt (We will always be prepared, so we may always be free. - Ronald Reagan)
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To: Cardhu
Ratzinger bombshell ping!

In the November 1985 letter, Ratzinger says the arguments for removing Kiesle are of "grave significance" but added that such actions required very careful review and more time. He also urged the bishop to provide Kiesle with "as much paternal care as possible" while awaiting the decision, according to a translation for AP by Professor Thomas Habinek, chairman of the University of Southern California Classics Department. But the future pope also noted that any decision to defrock Kiesle must take into account the "good of the universal church" and the "detriment that granting the dispensation can provoke within the community of Christ's faithful, particularly considering the young age." Kiesle was 38 at the time. Kiesle had been sentenced in 1978 to three years' probation after pleading no contest to misdemeanor charges of lewd conduct for tying up and molesting two young boys in a San Francisco Bay area church rectory. As his probation ended in 1981, Kiesle asked to leave the priesthood and the diocese submitted papers to Rome to defrock him.

Un-fing believable!
12 posted on 04/09/2010 11:44:24 AM PDT by TSgt (We will always be prepared, so we may always be free. - Ronald Reagan)
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To: Gen. Burkhalter
I think the reforms of Vatican II greatly diminished the standards and discipline of the Catholic Church. While it is true that pedophile priests existed in the Church prior to Vatican II in 1963, the vast majority of priests involved came into the Church after the Second Vatican Council. Standards were lowered and a number of depraved individuals entered into the priesthood who had no business being there in the first place.

When was Vatican II wrapped up, and when would the effects have started being felt?

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13 posted on 04/09/2010 11:46:36 AM PDT by ansel12
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To: TSgt

I respectfully disagree with you. While I acknowledge there was a serious problem in the Church and a lot of truly sick and depraved people slipped through the cracks, I know for a fact that reforms have been instituted and that people seeking religious orders are now subject to intense psychological and personality screening to ascertain their fitness for religious orders.

I myself, as a Church volunteer and Eucharistic Minister, was required to take a program called VIRTUS which is an extensive training and educational program on child sexual abuse. The Church IS in fact doing a better job of weeding out potential sexual deviants.


14 posted on 04/09/2010 11:48:37 AM PDT by Gen. Burkhalter
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To: NormsRevenge

It’s astonishing to me how normally sane people who dismiss the rants and biased reporting of the NYT and the AP will wholeheartedly believe anything anti-Catholic published by both of those rags.


15 posted on 04/09/2010 11:51:09 AM PDT by Jackson57
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To: Gen. Burkhalter
The Church IS in fact doing a better job of weeding out potential sexual deviants.

We are in lock-step agreement that the church is doing a better job weeding out potential sexual deviants. But we can't dismiss these cases or the inaction or cover-up by the current leadership, i.e. Cardinal Law.
16 posted on 04/09/2010 11:51:38 AM PDT by TSgt (We will always be prepared, so we may always be free. - Ronald Reagan)
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To: Jackson57

Please tell me what part of the article is false?


17 posted on 04/09/2010 11:52:31 AM PDT by TSgt (We will always be prepared, so we may always be free. - Ronald Reagan)
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To: TSgt
according to a translation for AP by Professor Thomas Habinek, chairman of the University of Southern California Classics Department.

Isn't this what got the NY Times in trouble in the first place by getting horrendous translations and omissions of fact? I'll wait until I see all of the facts before I believe another left-wing slant of the evidence.

18 posted on 04/09/2010 11:53:09 AM PDT by frogjerk
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To: frogjerk

That’s fair.

The letter should be published as-is for review.


19 posted on 04/09/2010 11:55:24 AM PDT by TSgt (We will always be prepared, so we may always be free. - Ronald Reagan)
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To: NormsRevenge

The idiot reporters who write this stuff seem to think that the only penalty available and the only way to deal with a priest of this sort is to “defrock” him.

He was suspended from exercising ministry. He was dealt with by the law.

“Defrocking” refers solely to an ecclesiastical status. It is the same as “laicization.” It is not and cannot be the chief means of rendering a sex offender incapable of abusing again. For that, other means are needed. In this case those means were in place. Get angry at instances in which those other steps were not taken and abusers abused again.

But that Cardinal Ratzinger was slow to laicize has nothing specific to do with covering up or enabling abuse.

The media bandy about words like “defrock” either out of ignorance or out of malice (in the latter case, assuming that because “to defrock” means “big-time punishment” to most ignorant fools reading this crap, therefore, not to defrock means not to punish at all.

This kind of sensationalism can only work among readers who are uninformed.

But in their uninformedness they, including some Freepers, do not hesitate to make moral judgments of apocalyptic dimensions.


20 posted on 04/09/2010 11:55:44 AM PDT by Houghton M.
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