THE FUTURE Pope Benedict XVI resisted pleas to defrock a US 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 paedophile 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 in California and the Vatican about the proposed defrocking of the Rev Stephen Kiesle.
The Vatican refused to comment on the contents of the letter today, but a spokesman confirmed it bore the pope's signature.
"The press office doesn't believe it is necessary to respond to every single document taken out of context regarding particular legal situations," the Rev Federico Lombardi said. "It is not strange that there are single documents which have Cardinal Ratzinger's signature." The diocese recommended removing Kiesle from the priesthood in 1981, the year the future pope was appointed to head the Vatican office which shared responsibility for disciplining abusive priests. The case then languished for four years at the Vatican before Joseph Ratzinger finally wrote to Oakland Bishop John Cummins. It was two more years before Kiesle was removed.
In the November 1985 letter, the future pope said the arguments for removing Kiesle were of "grave significance". He noted 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." - (AP)
Paddy Agnew in Rome adds
: Pope Benedict is willing to meet victims of clerical sex abuse, according to his spokesman Father Federico Lombardi. In an interview with Radio Vaticana, in which he insisted that Benedict was a "worthy pastor" for the Catholic Church in "these difficult times", Father Lombardi also repeated the Pope's offer, made in his recent pastoral letter to the Irish, to meet with victims: "Many victims are not looking for economic compensation but rather for interior help, for guidance in their painful, personal experience. This is something that really must be understood".