By MJP CAMPBELL - YOUNG FREETHOUGHT
Updated: Wed, 01 Sep 2010 14:53:24 UTC

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No doubt the controversy will continue. This will not be the last I write about it either. I encourage other writers under 21 to submit their take on this ongoing story to youngfreethought@googlemail.com. - Michael Campbell

Today we find the ink of Joseph Ratzinger’s pen on a letter advising a bishop to reconsider his request to defrock a convicted paedophile. In 1978, Rev Stephen Miller Kiesle was sentence to three years probation when he admitted (through a cowardly plea of no contest) that he tied up and sexually violated two young boys. It appears that several letters were written to Cardinal Ratzinger after 1981 by Bishop Cummins of Oakland asking that Kiesle be removed from holy orders (Bizarrely, Cummins cannot recall any of this, though the documentation is clear). Ratzinger resisted. Here is the letter in full, translated by the Associated Press from the original latin [italtics mine]:

Most Excellent Bishop

Having received your letter of September 13 of this year, regarding the matter of the removal from all priestly burdens pertaining to Rev Stephen Miller Kiesle in your diocese, it is my duty to share with you the following:

This court, although it regards the arguments presented in favour of removal in this case to be of grave significance, nevertheless deems it necessary to consider the good of the Universal Church together with that of the petitioner, and it is also unable to make light of the detriment that granting the dispensation can provoke with the community of Christ's faithful, particularly regarding the young age of the petitioner.

It is necessary for this Congregation to submit incidents of this sort to very careful consideration, which necessitates a longer period of time.

In the meantime your Excellency must not fail to provide the petitioner with as much paternal care as possible and in addition to explain to same the rationale of this court, which is accustomed to proceed keeping the common good especially before its eyes.

Let me take this occasion to convey sentiments of the highest regard always to you.

Your most Reverend Excellency

Joseph Cardinal Ratzinger

The signature has been confirmed by the Vatican as that of the current Pope. The infallible leader of hundreds of millions of faithful, is here shown to be a morally culpable human being. The former cardinal signed this letter delaying the removal of a convicted child rapist from the Church. The single most abhorrent crime a human being can perform was committed and Ratzinger deemed the most suitable action was delay and “careful consideration”. Unsuitable doesn't go nearly as far enough to describe Ratzinger's 'solution' As prefect of the Congregation for the Doctrine of Faith (re-branded from its former name: the inquisition), Ratzinger dealt with all abuse cases. In such circumstances, he had the ability to demand immediate resignation from all the revealed perverts in his almost as perverted faith. Not only did he fail to do this, but he orchestrated the attempts to keep the matter silent and within the confines of the church.
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TAGGED: ABUSE, ATHEISM, CHILDREN

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