ROME
Guardian Media (Trinidad)
A call has come from within the Catholic Church for trained secular authorities to be the ones to make a determination on whether or not allegations of sexual abuse against priests are sufficiently founded in reality to warrant investigation and possible prosecution. Monsignor Stephen Rossetti, a psychologist who ran a centre for ten years in the United States attempting to cure priests of their abusive patterns of sexual behaviour, told a conference on the subject in the Vatican Tuesday that priests, like alcoholics, lie, con, manipulate when confronted with allegations of sexual abuse.
“There are false allegations to be sure and it is critical to restore a priest’s good name when he has been cleared, but decades of experience tell us that the vast majority of allegations—over 95 per cent—are founded,” Monsignor Rossetti told reporters at a news conference in Rome. To better ensure that the allegations against the priests are exposed to people who are not disposed to protecting the church and fellow priests, Monsignor Rossetti says trained civil authorities, not bishops, should make decisions having heard the allegations. The Vatican is decidedly against going civil, preferring to leave it to the discernment of bishops to decide on whether or not to go forward with the allegations. Surely, while the Vatican has responsibility over the priests within the church, sexual abuse of young boys by men (whatever their vocation) falls squarely with civil authorities. Therefore, the monsignor, based on his understanding of abusive priests and his knowledge of psychology, prefers professionals to make the determination.
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