As I suspected - Pope Benedict is being set up again

Okay, this is not an independent source, but I think the facts here (as set out) speak for themselves. In 1985 the then Cardinal Ratzinger, as head of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, was dealing with the request of Father Stephen Kiesle to be defrocked (or, as the Roman Church says these days, to be laicized, ie to effectively cancel his priestly ordination and return him to to the state of a layperson). That was the sole question and issue before the Congregation and Cardinal Ratzinger, and it was initiated by Fr Stephen. For there is a very simple reason for that, so simple that any journalist who wasn't a lazy and biased hack would have discovered by actually doing some background research. In 1985 the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith did not have authority to investigate or deal with paedophile priests. And it didn't gain authority over this matter until 2001. In 1985 it was Fr Stephen's ordinary, the bishop of Oakland in the United States who was responsible for dealing with his crimes against children and who had taken a number of measures to make sure that he did not reoffend. Indeed, as far as we know, Kiesle did not reoffend up to his dismissal from the priesthood in 1987 and it was in 2002, 15 years after he had been defrocked that new complaints were made against him. But of course, by that time he was no longer a Roman Catholic priest. Also, it was the state of California which destroyed the records of his case after he served a sentence of probation, and this was done before Rome even became aware of the matter. There was no cover up and, to repeat, the matter had been dealt with already by the civil authorities. The only question for the Roman Church in 1985 was what to do with Kiesle's request to be released from the priesthood.

Posted via email from Garth's posterous