LEXINGTON (KY)
Herald-Leader
By Frank E. Lockwood
HERALD-LEADER STAFF WRITER
Lexington Catholic Bishop Ronald Gainer received "incontrovertible evidence" in 2003 that one of his priests had been credibly accused of sexually and psychologically abusing a 13-year-old girl.
But the diocese waited until yesterday to acknowledge publicly that it believed the allegations and had punished the priest.
Diocesan officials say that they permanently barred the Rev. Stephen F. Gallenstein from public ministry shortly after the allegations came to light. Gainer is also asking the Vatican to evict Gallenstein from the priesthood, a process known as laicization.
For more than two years, diocesan spokesman Tom Shaughnessy had insisted that no decisions had been made in Gallenstein's case.