Priest Who Treats Abusers Talks Facts & Fantasy to Himself

What They Knew
October 29, 2012

http://vu2103.katla.orangewebsite.com/priest-who-treats-abusers-talks-facts-fantasy/

Msgr Rossetti knows how many Jesuits he has met that want to stop sex abuse 4 thats all.

Jesuits know its time to catch up on their sleep when Msgr Rossetti speaks.

[with video]

[with pdf]

Msgr Stephen Rossetti spoke behind closed doors in February 2012 at the Gregorian University Conference on Clergy Sex Abuse at the Vatican. Below is his speech, it is worth reading when compared to what the Jesuit intellects said in our previous post. It warrants even more comparison to what Msgr Rossetti says now. But then again, Msgr Rossetti is not a Jesuit, he just cleans up their mess and treats them. But did anyone listen? Some significant points stated in the speech:

• -There is a complicated web of competing demands- pastoral, legal, clinical, and public relationswhich can confuse, confound and even paralyze. It is publicly well known that, at times, in ourresponding, we have failed.

• -Our mistake was that we forgot that the victims are part of our flock too.Unfortunately, when we focus on perpetrators and not on victims, there are devastatingconsequences. Perpetrators almost universally minimize, rationalize, project blame and deny thetruth about their crimes. It is difficult for them to face the truth about their behavior; a behaviorwhich Pope Benedict, on several occasions, has rightly called, filth.
• -But decades of experiencetell us that the vast majority of allegations, over 95 percent, are founded. There is little benefit,and much to be lost, for a person to come forward and to allege that he or she was sexuallymolested by a priest. It takes courage to do so and a willingness to suffer blame and ridicule.
• -[H]e will blame the victim, saying that the child wasoming on to him, trying to seduce him. And if one victim surfaces, it is likely that there are more.
• -A Victims First policy. Every investigation should begin with listening tothe victim. The victim, not the perpetrator, ought to be the first focus of the Churchs attention.
• -Child sexual abuse has always been a scourge in our society and in our Church. Simplyread Canon 71 from the Council of Elvira (c. 306 AD). It says, Those who sexually abuse boysmany not commune even when death approaches. Apparently there was enough sexual abuse ofboys in Spain 1,700 years ago to warrant a canon against it. Child sexual abuse is not a newphenomenon.
• -Sexual abuse is a horror that remains hidden and it, like all evil, thrives in thedark. Healing only begins when it is exposed to the light.
• -Any denial of the frequent sexual molestation of minors around the globe is an echo ofthe very denial perpetrators use to keep their evil hidden. When we fail to expose this evil to thelight of day, it continues secretly to pollute the Church from within.
• -There has never been, nor will there ever be, a psychological treatment regimen for theperpetrators of child sexual abuse, or any pathology for that matter, which is 100% effective.This is not the nature of psychology or the world in which we live. There is always some chanceof relapse.In the clinical program where I worked, of the 339 priests who were treated for sexuallymolesting minors, (only including those who have been discharged for at least five years), 21relapsed, that is 6.2%. Those results were so strong because the program had an intensive, longtermtreatment, relatively high-functioning clients, an excellent staff, and an extensive multi-yearfollow-up program that included supervision. But even this program was not 100% effective.
• -There was a time when Churchleaders, often with the cooperation of civil authorities, shielded priests from civil laws.
• -Catholic priests ought not to be shielded from answering for theircrimes, whether it is the stealing of monies from their Churches or the sexual abuse of a minor, or any violation of civil law for that matter. When a priest has been accused of a civil crime, it isthe role of the civil authorities to investigate the crime and to apply just punishments.
• -We can forgive the priest and not reassign him. For example, while weforgive a man who has a history of robbing banks, it would be imprudent to make him a bankteller. No, we forgive the man but we keep him away from handling other peoples money.
• -I must alert you that there is a small group of high risk offenders who are particularlydangerous men. They have molested scores, perhaps hundreds, of children.iii This type ofoffender does not normally respond to treatment and will most probably offend again, if giventhe chance. While the minority, these high risk offenders must be identified and kept under thehighest level of supervision.
• -Churchleaders ought to refer all allegations of child sexual abuse to civil authorities.
• -Moreover, the culturalclimate of sexual expression of the so-called sexual revolution of the 1960s likely contributedas well.Simply put, we took a group of men with deviant sexual problems and put them in anenvironment which not only did not sufficiently condemn and punish the sexual abuse of minors,but actually loosely promoted sexual expression.
• - There are many different kinds of offenders. Some are highly narcissisticand use people to gratify their own needs. Others are hyper-sexual and will be sexually involvedwith many different kinds of people. Some are classic pedophiles who sexually prefer prepubescentchildren. Others rape children thinking it will cure their HIV/AIDS.
• - First, most childabusers in the world are not homosexual and most homosexuals do not molest minors
• - For example, recently a priest was found to have taken hundreds of pictures of children,spent excessive amounts of time with them, had children sitting in his lap and reaching into hispockets, and even had little girls underwear in his apartment. But when the diocese received aformal complaint, it responded slowly and ineffectively. Eventually the priest was arrested forpossession of child pornography.
• - All the signs were present that this man likely had deviantsexual interests and that minors were at risk or were being abused. People formally complainedand yet Church leaders were slow to respond.We are responsible for protecting children. This not only includes dealing withallegations of child sexual abuse swiftly and effectively, but also recognizing the warning signs,the red flags.

• Similarly, since the late 1970s, abuse by Catholic clergy has plummeted from 4 percent to less than 1 percent.
• Mirroring these aggressive efforts has been the remarkable turnaround in the Catholic Church with it currently having one of the most extensive, comprehensive child protection programs in the country.
• I recall being at thebishops meeting in Dallas 2002when the clergy sexual abuse crisis was at its zenith.In this intense environment, American public sentiment sent a clear message to the bishops, Get rid of them. And they did. A few hundred were immediately dismissed and more followed.