VATICAN CITY (AP) — A top Vatican official has resigned after a former nun from his community publicly accused him of making sexual advances during confession.

The Vatican said in a statement Tuesday that the Rev. Hermann Geissler denies the allegation and reserves the right to a civil suit.

Geissler, who wants the church to carry on investigating the woman's allegations, said he was resigning "to limit the damage already done" to the Vatican's Congregation of the Faith office, the Vatican office which handles sex abuse cases and where he was chief of staff.

Doris Wagner, a former nun in Geissinger's German order known as "the Work," publicly accused Geissler at a conference on women and clergy sexual abuse that was held in Rome in November.