The Vatican has refused to comment on the contents of the letter bearing the signature of the then Cardinal Ratzinger in the case of a California-based priest accused of abusing numerous children whose case languished for years at the Vatican.
The case, according to critics, appears to challenge the Vatican's insistence that Pope 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 correspondence, obtained by The Associated Press, appears to indicate that the future Pope Benedict XVI resisted pleas to defrock the priest who had a record of sexually abusing children.
The 1985 letter, bearing the future Pontiff’s signature, cites concerns including "the good of the universal church".
The letter was typed in Latin and forms part of correspondence over a period of time between the Diocese of Oakland in California and the Vatican about the proposed defrocking of Fr Stephen Kiesle.
Vatican spokesman Fr Frederico Lombardi, has confirmed that the letter in question bears the signature of the then Cardinal Ratzinger.
The Diocese of Oakland recommended removing Fr Stephen Kiesle from the priesthood in 1981, the year Ratzinger 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 Cardinal Ratzinger finally wrote to Bishop John Cummins. It was two more years before Kiesle was removed from ministry.
In the November 1985 letter, Cardinal Ratzinger said the arguments for removing Kiesle were 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 by Professor Thomas Habinek, chairman of the University of Southern California Classics Department.
But the future pope also 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." Kiesle was 38 at the time.
Kiesle had been sentenced in 1978 to three years' probation after pleading no contest to 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.
In his earliest letter to Cardinal Ratzinger, Bishop Cummins warned that returning Kiesle to ministry would cause more of a scandal than stripping him of his priestly powers.
"It is my conviction that there would be no scandal if this petition were granted and that as a matter of fact, given the nature of the case, there might be greater scandal to the community if Father Kiesle were allowed to return to the active ministry," Cummins wrote in 1982.
A Vatican spokesman told the News Agency the future Pope's response was not an attempt at a cover-up but made clear the need to study the case with more attention, taking into account the good of all involved.
Reacting to the report on Friday, Fr Frederico Lombardi said, "The press office doesn't believe it is necessary to respond to every single document taken out of context regarding particular legal situations". He added, "It is not strange that there are single documents which have Cardinal Ratzinger's signature."
While papers obtained include only one letter with Ratzinger's signature, correspondence and internal memos from the diocese refer to a letter dated 17 November 1981, from the then-cardinal to the bishop. Ratzinger was appointed to head the Vatican's Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith a week later.
California church officials wrote to Cardinal Ratzinger at least three times to check on the status of Kiesle's case. At one point, a Vatican official wrote to say the file may have been lost and suggested resubmitting materials.
Diocese officials considered writing to Ratzinger again after they received his 1985 response to impress upon him that leaving Kiesle in the ministry would harm the church, Rev George Mockel wrote in a memo to the Oakland bishop.
"My own reading of this letter is that basically they are going to sit on it until Steve gets quite a bit older," the memo said. "Despite his young age, the particular and unique circumstances of this case would seem to make it a greater scandal if he were not laicized."
Irwin Zalkin, a lawyer representing some of the victims, said he was familiar with the correspondence but wouldn't provide documents.
"Cardinal Ratzinger was more concerned about the avoidance of scandal than he was about protecting children," Zalkin said in a phone interview. "That was a central theme."
As Kiesle's fate was being weighed in Rome, the priest returned to suburban Pinole to volunteer as a youth minister at St Joseph Church, where he had served as associate pastor from 1972 to 1975.
Kiesle was ultimately stripped of his priestly powers in 1987, though the documents do not indicate when, how or why. They also don't indicate what role - if any - Ratzinger had in the decision.
Kiesle continued to volunteer with children, according to Maurine Behrend, who worked in the Oakland diocese's youth ministry office in the 1980s. After learning of his history, Behrend complained to church officials. When nothing was done she wrote a letter.
"Obviously nothing has been done after EIGHT months of repeated notifications," she wrote.
"How are we supposed to have confidence in the system when nothing is done? A simple phone call to the pastor from the bishop is all it would take."
She eventually confronted Cummins at a confirmation and Kiesle was gone a short time later, Behrend said.
Kiesle was arrested and charged in 2002 with 13 counts of child molestation from the 1970s. All but two were thrown out after the US Supreme Court struck down as unconstitutional a California law extending the statute of limitations.
He pleaded no contest in 2004 to a felony for molesting a young girl in his Truckee home in 1995 and was sentenced to six years in state prison.
Kiesle, now 63 and a registered sex offender, lives in a Walnut Creek gated community, according to his address listed on the Megan's Law sex registry.
William Gagen, an attorney who represented Kiesle in 2002, did not return a call for comment.
More than half a dozen victims reached a settlement in 2005 with the Oakland diocese alleging Kiesle had molested them as young children.
"He admitted molesting many children and bragged that he was the Pied Piper and said he tried to molest every child that sat on his lap," said Lewis VanBlois, an attorney for six Kiesle victims who interviewed the former priest in prison.
"When asked how many children he had molested over the years, he said 'tons'."
Cummins, the now-retired bishop, said during an interview at his Oakland home that he "didn't really care for" Kiesle, but he didn't recall writing to Ratzinger concerning the case.
"I wish I did write to Cardinal Ratzinger. I don't think I was that smart," said Cummins, now 82.
Documents obtained last week revealed similar instances of Vatican stalling in cases involving two Arizona clergy.
(Source: PA)
