The German bishops’ conference has revealed charges that a deceased bishop engaged in sexual abuse of minors, and helped other clerics charged with the same sort of abuse, while serving as head of a charitable organization in Latin America.

Bishop Emil Stehle is charged with sixteen cases of sexual abuse, and with helping pedophile priests to escape prosecutors in Latin America. He had served as bishop of two dioceses in Ecuador, and as head of Adveniat, an arm of the German bishops’ conference that provides aid to Latin American communities.

Earlier reports had suggested that Bishop Stehle, who died in 2017, had also helped European priests who were charged with abuse to find new posts in Latin America.