The latest child molestation scandal for the Catholic church goes all the way up to His Holiness, the Pope himself. According to a letter obtained by the Associated Press, Pope Benedict, then Cardinal John Ratzinger, refused to defrock a California priest by the name of Stephen Kiesle with a record of sexually molesting children. Cardinal Ratzinger cited concerns including 'the good of the universal church.'
Father Kiesle had been sentenced to three years probation in 1978 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. When his probation ended in 1981, Kiesle asked to be released from the priesthood and the diocese submitted papers to Rome to defrock him. Kiesle was eventually laicized on February 13, 1987.
My first question is, why is it only a misdemeanor for tying up and molesting two young boys? And then I have to ask why did it take the church nine whole years before kicking this monster out? And for PR reasons at that. Why wouldn't they let him leave the priesthood in 1981? Not only do we have a serial child rapist working with children but he's disgruntled too? Great.
And this is just another example of a systematic pattern that has gone on for at least decades within the Catholic church. My God, if they will cover-up the raping of children what would they feel compelled to come clean on? Where's the line? Necrophilia? Cannibalism? It should make every human being sick to their stomach and demand justice. And not just having the perpetrator go to the confessional and everything is hunky dory. I highly doubt the victims would agree that the punishment fits the crime.
Imagine if the CEO of a major corporation was covering up crimes such as these. Let's take a popular day care chain, KinderCare. What if one of the branch managers was found to be molesting the children in the day care center and this was reported to the CEO but he did nothing about it or maybe he just moved the manager to a different branch? There isn't a jury in the world that wouldn't find him guilty and send him away to prison.
The Pope needs to be held to the same standard as anyone else. I wonder if they would let him wear that cool hat in prison?
Ryan Fitch has been providing political commentary since 2009. Follow his blog at idiottaskforce.blogspot.com
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