Convicted of child sexual abuse in the East Bay, a priest quietly served at a Sonoma County parish. Advocates ask if other survivors exist

Lea el artículo en español aquí.

In spring of 1979, a priest living in the East Bay got a call from the Rev. James Corley, the administrator at Our Lady of Guadalupe Catholic Church in Windsor. Corley — essentially an interim pastor — needed someone to fill in while he traveled to Mexico on diocesan business, and then to Rome for an ordination ceremony.

The priest Corley recruited, Stephen Kiesle, accepted the offer and soon notified the Oakland diocese in a letter.

“I hope the experience in Windsor will be a happy one for you,” Oakland Bishop John Cummins wrote back, in a letter reviewed by The Press Democrat.

Related Articles

But Kiesle wasn’t supposed to be there.

Just a year earlier, he was arrested for sexually abusing six boys at Our Lady of the Rosary Church in Union City. He