VATICAN CITY – An Austrian priest who resigned from a senior Vatican position after being accused of trying to kiss a nun during confession has been cleared, the Vatican said on Friday.
Father Hermann Geissler left his job at the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, the Vatican department responsible for punishing predator priests, in late January.
“The Supreme Tribunal of the Apostolic Signature, the highest judicial body in the Catholic Church, cleared Geissler due to lack of solid evidence,’’ a statement said.
The decision was delivered on May 15.
Doris Wagner, a German former nun, denounced Geissler’s conduct in November, when she spoke with other female victims of clergy sex abuse at an event in Rome.
She originally did not name the priest, but later confirmed his identity in media interviews.
“He told me how much he loved me, that he knew that I loved him and that, even if we did not have the right to marry, there were other ways.
“He tried to keep me back and kiss me, but I fled from the confessional,’’ Wagner told the National Catholic Reporter.
