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Timeline of Defrocked Priest Stephen Kiesle Santa Cruz Sentinel April 9, 2010 http://www.santacruzsentinel.com/nationalbreaking/ci_14855128 A timeline of defrocked priest Stephen Kiesle # 1972: Ordained at St. Francis De Sales, Oakland. # 1972-1975: Associate pastor at St. Joseph's Church in Pinole. # 1975-1978: Assigned to Our Lady of the Rosary in Union City. # August 1978: Kiesle is arrested and pleads no contest to lewd conduct, a misdemeanor, for tying up and molesting two boys. Sentenced to three years of probation. His record is later expunged. # 1978-1981: Takes extended leave of absence, attends counseling and reports regularly to probation officer. # July 1981: Oakland Bishop John Cummins sends Kiesle's file to the Vatican in support of the priest's petition for laicization, or defrocking. # November 1981: Vatican asks for more information. # 1982: Kiesle moves to Pinole. # February 1982: Cummins writes to Joseph Ratzinger, then prefect for the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, providing additional information and warning of possible scandal if Kiesle is not defrocked. # September 1982: Oakland diocese official writes Ratzinger asking for update. # September 1983: Cummins visits Rome, discusses Kiesle case with Vatican officials. # December 1983: Vatican official writes Oakland to say Kiesle's file can't be found and they should resubmit materials. # January 1984: Cummins writes a Vatican official to inquire about status of Kiesle file. # 1985: Kiesle volunteers as a youth minister at St. Joseph's Church in Pinole. # September 1985: Cummins writes Ratzinger asking about status of Kiesle case. # November 1985: Ratzinger writes to Cummins about Kiesle case. # December 1985: A memo from diocese officials discusses writing to Ratzinger again to stress the risk of scandal if Kiesle's case is delayed. # 1987: Kiesle is defrocked. # 2002: Kiesle is arrested and charged with 13 counts of child molestation; all but two are thrown out after U.S. Supreme Court ruling invalidates a California law extending statute of limitations. # 2004: Kiesle pleads no contest to felony charge of molesting a young girl in 1995 at his Truckee vacation home. # 2004: He is sentenced to six years in prison for the 1995 molestation. # 2005: Ratzinger is elected pope and adopts the name Pope Benedict XVI. # 2009: Kiesle is released on parole in March; he violates parole in October and returns to prison. # 2010: Kiesle is released again in February. He is now a registered sex offender living in Rossmoor, the gated seniors community in Walnut Creek. |
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