ST. LOUIS -- A retired Roman Catholic priest who admits having sexually abused a dozen boys at three different parishes in the 1970s says he likes "to think they've forgotten about it and don't care anymore."

"Children were curious about sex. They ask about their own bodies growing up," the Rev. Joseph P. Lessard, who retired in 1993 and now lives near Prairie Du Rocher, Ill., told the St. Louis Post-Dispatch for a story Sunday.

Lessard, 76, said he assured each boy -- generally about 12 years old -- it was natural to explore their own body, "and then I would show them how to do it."

Lessard was never sued or charged with a crime.

The St. Louis Archdiocese, he said, never asked him to admit or deny an accusation. Archdiocese lawyers on his behalf settled one complaint for $60,000 in 1997, and another complaint was settled without payment in 1996 with the assurance that Lessard leave the parish.

Terry Edelmann, a spokeswoman for the archdiocese, said she could provide no details or discuss the archdiocese's actions regarding Lessard because those decisions were made by people no longer at the archdiocese.

Archbishop apologizes

In a statement late Saturday, Archbishop Justin Rigali apologized to Lessard's victims and their families, and said the church would not allow those circumstances to occur today.

"I am saddened by these tragic reported cases which occurred in the 1970s," Rigali said.

After being ordained here in 1952, Lessard served for nine years at St. Louis County's St. George Church, where he trained and directed 180 altar boys, oversaw a 1,300-student school, ran soccer teams, directed a choir and translated Gregorian chants into English for young singers.

Lessard said he never touched a child at St. George.

In 1961, he was transferred to the suburban Most Blessed Sacrament Church, six years before becoming pastor of the local Visitation-Holy Ghost Church, where he stayed two years and says he never abused. In 1969, he became pastor of St. Mary's Church in Moselle, a tiny, rural Franklin County parish about 50 miles west of St. Louis where, he said, his sexual attraction to young boys began to fester.

"I guess I just kind of broke down," he said.

After a fishing trip he arranged with a boy from another parish, he took the child back to the rectory and the pair "started fooling around."

Names are hazy

The abuse went on for a couple years. Lessard said he seduced about nine boys over the next seven years, most of them from the neighboring parish.

He said the exact number and the boys' names are hazy. To each boy, he said, "Let's not tell your parents about this."

But when one boy's family complained to the archdiocese personnel board in 1976, he said, Cardinal John Joseph Carberry -- then archbishop of St. Louis -- told Lessard he was being transferred to Good Shepherd Church in Hillsboro, in neighboring Jefferson County. Carberry, who died in 1998, never gave a reason why, Lessard said.

"I've gotten the impression it was because of the complaints coming in," Lessard said.

Lessard said he molested a boy at Good Shepherd in late 1976, recognized his addiction to young boys, resigned from the church and checked into a Minnesota hospital.

Lessard returned to St. Louis in 1980, was assigned as Catholic chaplain-in-residence at St. Joseph Hospital in St. Charles. In 1984, he transferred to the local Jewish Hospital, now part of Barnes-Jewish Hospital, and worked there until retiring in 1993.