Fr. Stephen Rossetti and St. Lukes Pedophile-paradise

By Joey Piscitelli
Joey Piscitelli
November 5, 2012

http://joeypiscitelli.com/fr-stephen-rossetti-and-st-lukes-pedophile-paradise/

Fr. Rossetti -Catholic University of America

The recent articles by Fr. Stephen Rossetti PhD, such as “A New Phase of Child Protection”, printed in the Washington Post on October 26th – are a lamentable diversion. They are masking the historic truth about the systematic shielding of clergy pedophiles.

Rev. Rossetti, now a “clinical professor” at the Catholic University of America, in Washington, D.C, had the insolence to state: “the steps taken in the last 30 years to prevent the devastating trauma of child sex abuse are making a difference”.

Rossetti of all people, should know better than to boast about clergy child abuse prevention. He was CEO at ground zero; the notorious St. Lukes Institute in Maryland – the Catholic treatment center victims have dubbed “Pedophile-Paradise”.

Ever since the clergy abuse scandal exploded years ago, countless observers have asked this question:

“Why weren’t pedophile priests prosecuted and convicted?”

Perhaps they should ask Fr. Stephen Rossetti to open up his secret files for the answer. Dare him to reveal what took place while he was a psychological evaluator, and eventually the CEO at St. Lukes Institute from 1993 to 2009. St. Lukes Institute “treated” hundreds of clergy molesters; I found no records showing they were sent to prosecutors by Rossetti.

The reason why most pedophile priests were not convicted is simple – they weren’t turned in on time – or at all.

Many lawyers contend the transfer of clergy molesters to “treatment institutes” was a shrewd plan to stall or omit reporting clergy molesters to authorities timely; the statute of limitations to prosecute child abusers is only 7 years in many states.

One sordid example is the case of serial pedophile Fr. Donald McGuire. Although Jesuit officials had several documents supporting the complaints against McGuire for child molestation – McGuire was sent to St. Lukes in 1993– instead of being turned in to police.

Fr. Rossetti, the clinical reporter of St. Lukes at the time, evaluated McGuire in a written report on May 25th, 1993. Rossetti admits that McGuire was a sex offender; but Rossetti failed in 1993 to warn unsuspecting parents, and did not turn McGuire in to police. McGuire left St. Lukes in June of 1993 unprosecuted.

Under the guise of labeling “child rape” as a “medical condition” instead of “sexual assault”, St. Lukes Institute enabled countless sex abusers to skate past the radar to escape justice.

Proof is on record: McGuire continued for years to travel unsupervised on a raping spree. Fr. McGuire was finally convicted in February 2009, only because of the efforts of the State Attorney of Wisconsin – irrespective of the shielding by St. Lukes. That conviction was 16 years after Rossetti knew McGuire was an abhorrent menace to children.

Where was the present mouthpiece Fr. Stephen Rossetti, his inflammatory ego, and his articles – when child rapists like McGuire left his facility to continue to molest innocent children then?

Clergy abuse victim “John Doe 29” knows very well what happened when Rossettis group failed to send rapists to prosecutors – and “treated and released them” instead.

When asked for his comment on Rossetti and the St. Lukes Institute evaluation team, John said:

“Fr. Rossettis self-awarded black belt in child sex abuse prevention should shamefully be forfeited – then burned in respect for all of the children like me who were raped by St. Lukes Catholic priest alumni.”

Rossetti was confronted on March 21st, 2012 by The Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests (SNAP) victim advocates for answers. When asked why Rossetti didn’t turn McGuire in when he learned McGuire was a molester, Rossetti stated: “Child reporting statutes of Maryland did not allow one to break the law of medical confidentiality to report child sex abuse when it happened out of state”.

The State of Maryland Criminal Code 3-303 however, is specific; it lists felony child sexual offense as a “crime” and not as “a medical condition”. When SNAP advocates contacted the State of Maryland authorities on the issue in April 2012, they responded that:

“A complaint in another state made by an individual for child rape by McGuire, or any pedophile, had nothing to do with the medical confidentiality law between McGuire and Rossetti in Maryland”.

Rossetti offered no comment as to why he did not have the wherewithal to simply refer McGuire back to the States that could prosecute McGuire for the crimes he committed there.

When confronted March 22, 2012, as to why McGuire was released after Rossetti learned of McGuires heinous record, Rossetti explained:

“Fr. McGuire was evaluated at St. Lukes Institute for one week, but subsequently treated elsewhere. St. Luke Institute is not able to tell sending organizations what to do with their individuals, but it can make clinical recommendations. The team strongly recommended that he have no unsupervised ministry with young people”.

But Rossetti never mentioned recommending McGuire be turned over to authorities – as he should have. His “recommendations” were not made to legal authorities – they were forwarded to the Jesuits instead – who habitually did nothing to stop McGuire.

Why St. Lukes Institute is located in Maryland is also a subject of debate.

Child abuse advocates complain that St. Lukes Institute “treatments” were established in Maryland to shelter pedophiles, and to cunningly circumvent reporting of clergy crimes that were committed in other states. They additionally accuse the institute of conveniently enabling the dodging of legal responsibility by catholic officials – by deceptively labeling sex offenses as “medical problems” instead. St Lukes duplicitous strategy aided many sex offenders to escape criminal investigation; and the supervisors of the facility have successfully avoided accountability.

Rossetti and other educated PhDs must have had the capacity to understand that abusive priests that were being sent to catholic treatment institutes were able to escape justice – thus creating the ecclesiastical “Pedophiles Paradise”.

In Rossettis article, February 2012, “Responding Effectively to Child Sexual Abusers”, Rossetti reported figures of admitted sex offenses by only a portion of the priests (91) treated at St. Lukes Institute. The priests admitted to approximately 1375 incidences of sexual assault – none of which Rossetti said were sent to authorities for prosecution. The exact count of how many child sexual assaults that were committed by all the molester priests after they left Rossettis Institute is still unknown. Professional conservative estimates based on the prior reported figures exceed 4000; and no one at St. Lukes is being held accountable.

As Rossetti continues today to represent himself as an expert on child abuse issues, we continue to witness the aftermath of clergy molesters who “visited” St. Lukes. Many of those atrocities may been prevented by “clinical professors” who now dismiss their past conduct without blinking – while they continue to write articles praising themselves.