KENTUCKY
WDRB
Updated: Mar 06, 2017
LOUISVILLE, Ky. (WDRB) — A former priest who was serving a prison sentence for sexually abusing Kentucky children has died.
Louis Miller died Saturday morning after a lengthy illness, according to Lisa Lamb, a spokeswoman for the Kentucky Department of Corrections.
Miller was removed from the priesthood in 2004 by the late Pope John Paul II after pleading guilty in 2003 to sexually abusing a Kentucky resident and other victims who were children in the 1970s.
In a deposition transcription obtained by The Associated Press, Miller said he had offered to resign as early as 1962 to his then-Archbishop John Floersh, and that two subsequent archbishops knew of his crimes but continued to keep him as a priest, moving him from parish to parish.
In explaining why he wanted to resign, Miller said: “I just knew that the crime was so horrendous in my own mind that I didn’t feel that I was worthy to remain a priest.” But he said Floersh was “compassionate,” kept him on, and told him “You will always be a good priest.”
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