Top US Jesuit sets record straight on Vatican sex crimes prosecutor over notorious pedophile

VATICAN CITY – The head of the Jesuit religious order in the United States is defending the Vatican's new sex crimes prosecutor, saying he had practically no role in the Jesuits' handling of a notorious pedophile now serving a 25-year prison sentence.

The Rev. Timothy Kesicki, president of the U.S. Jesuit Conference, spoke to The Associated Press after The Boston Globe reported that the Rev. Robert Geisinger failed to report the abuser to police when he was the second highest-ranking official in the Jesuits' Chicago province in the 1990s.

Kesicki said Geisinger only worked for the Chicago province for about 14 weeks, from late December 1994 through March 1995. He was a temporary executive assistant to the acting provincial, with no authority, while the provincial was in Rome for a big Jesuit meeting.