Parental rage when their children are violated needs to be heard by the Church more
No more prevalent in the Church than in society

  Fr Steve Rossetti is one of the most respected voices in America [U.S.A.] on the issue of child abuse by priests. Author of four books and a psychologist with expertise in the treatment of sexual disorders, he has frequently been asked by America's bishops to speak to the media on the issue.
  I met Fr Rossetti during his visit to Australia recently. He said "any sane person" should feel sympathy for the bishops, in view of the intensity of the media spotlight on them recently.
  "They (the US bishops) have made some mistakes -- there's no doubt about it. But I frankly do not personally believe they deserve the intensity of the mistrust and hostility that they've received. I'm disappointed by it, frankly."
  Fr Rossetti believes the church's bishops are working hard on the issue of rebuilding trust in the church. However, the nature of the problems that have arisen don't necessarily admit of simple solutions.
  "There are several levels of problems and crises going on," Fr Rossetti says. "One is child abuse itself -- whenever anyone does it, it's a terrible thing, but when a priest does it, it's particularly despicable. "But there are other levels, and one of the levels is how the bishops make their decisions and implement them. Over the last decade, they were doing a lot of good work, in a lot of cases, but people didn't know about it, and so they assume the worst when a case like the Boston case of John Geoghan came up."
  In a lengthy article written last April, Fr Rossetti included increased openness as one of five essential resolutions that should be adopted by the Church in America in response to the recent crisis.
  Others include listening more to parents. "One of the 'disconnects' has been that, obviously, no-one likes child abuse -- but the parents have a particularly strong response because they have this intense connection with their own children," Fr Rossetti said. "That sort of parental rage when their children are violated needs to be heard by the Church, more."
  While urging a greater stress on accountability in church decision-making, Fr Rossetti defends the hierarchical nature of the Catholic Church's structure.
  "There's a hierarchy in every organisation," he says. "You have a boss. Your boss has a boss. Hierarchy's one of those words where people say, 'isn't it awful', but hierarchies are everywhere -- including families.
  "The parents are in charge, the kids are not. If the parents are not in charge, the family falls apart. So hierarchies are a good thing - but the implication is right: the implication is that it can't be without accountability.
  "There needs to be a balance between proper authority, proper hierarchy, which is not a bad thing, and some accountability."
  Fr Rossetti rejects many "grand theories" that have emerged about why the crisis has occurred. "There's lots of 'good' theories: there's the theory that it's caused by celibacy, that it's caused by homosexuality, that it's caused by not having married priests.
  "All those things assume that somehow there's a unique problem in the Catholic Church. And there's not. This is not a priests' problem, it's a human problem. You look at the percentage of priests who molest minors. One is one too many, but the best numbers suggest that it's no more prevalent in the Church than it is in society.
  "The 'sexual revolution' may have had some impact, but this has been going on before the sexual revolution even started."
  Fr Rossetti also says that the Church must continue preaching Catholic doctrine - including doctrine on sexuality. "There's a well of anger against the Church for a variety of issues, and one of the issues is the Church's teaching on sexuality.
  "People say they don't like the Church's teachings, and they get angry. One reporter said to me, 'isn't the Church abusing the people by its teaching on sexuality?' My response to that is that teaching the truth is never abusive.
  "You might not like it, and it might be counter-cultural, but I think that society's approach to sexuality is bankrupt. I think the Church has an important message to bring when it comes to sexuality.
  "I think that sexuality is a wonderful gift from God, but it must be used in a way that's appropriate to one's state in life. There are boundaries and limits." -- Paul Gray
http://www.therecord.com.au/regulars.html   The Record, "I Say, I Say...." with Paul Gray, Nov 7 2002 p 6
© The Record, Perth, at www.therecord.com.au   P.O. Box 75, Leederville, WA, 6902, Australia, Tel. 08 9227 7080, Fax 9227 7087, cathrec@iinet.net.au
Clergy sex-abuse references at: www.multiline.com.au/~johnm/ethicscontents.htm

  The abusive behaviour continues still
NO BROAD VISION IN FR STEVE ROSSETTI'S
DEFENCE OF INDEFENSIBLE U.S. BISHOPS

COMMENT: The article "I Say, I Say...." (No more prevalent in the Church than in society) with Paul Gray, in The Record, Perth, Nov 7 2002 p 6, is typical of Church-approved comments about the clergy child abuse in various Churches, such as Mary Ann Glendon's speech in Rome on Nov 4 2002 (The Record, "It's up to the laity: Glendon," by Cindy Wooden, 7 Nov 2002, p 5)
  Look at this phrase, "they assume the worst when a case like the Boston case of John Geoghan came up". But Geoghan's cases (plural) kept on coming up! Boston Archdiocese had paid in the mid-1990s a group of Father Geoghan's victims, and millions more to others in 2001 ($30 million so far), but he is now facing even more new trials in 2002.
  And Fr Geoghan is no orphan! Boston and other archdioceses also have the notorious matter of Father Paul Shanley (in Church files since 1967, but public since at least April 2002), who has been in gaol awaiting trial for months until bailed out for $US300,000 on December 11 2002 (with whose money?). If these were the only two, quoting Fr Rossetti's article of last April might have led Paul Gray into overlooking the sheer immensity of the problem.

  For years the U.S. names have kept coming --   Go back to the Fr Geoghan payouts in the mid 1990s. The bishops DID NOT TELL the people who donate the funds, nor the insurance companies, about the possible extra costs that he might cause in future! Neither did Church leaders tell parents when they sent him and other predatory seducers to new parishes or schools!
  Is it any wonder that in March 2002 The Boston Herald had called for Boston Cardinal Bernard Law's resignation, and following the Shanley revelations The Boston Globe and The Union Leader did the same? Cardinal Law's resignation was offered to the Pope in April 2002, so why did he take until December to accept it?
  Fr Rossetti ought to have known most of the above. Being a psychologist, he ought to know that way back in 1949 the Servants of the Paraclete opened their first centre to care for problematic U.S. priests in Jemez Spring, New Mexico, and that a growing number of sex-abusers have been sent there and to other such institutions, and are being treated by psychiatry and psychology as well as religious exercises.
  Paul Gray ought to have known some of the history of clergy child abuse, at least as far back as 1985 in the U.S. and Australia, or the 1993 decisions of the U.S. episcopate. Has he heard of the 1996 exposure of the U.S. hierarchy's handling of sex-abusers, including Fathers Hughes, Peebles, and Kos, which were made in the "Sipe Report" by psychotherapist A.W. Richard Sipe (a priest until 1970, who had treated priest child-abusers at the request of bishops)? He estimated (para 50) that 1300 priests and religious had been treated for psychosexual disorders involving minors in the previous 25 years in the U.S.A. It's on the Internet at www.thelinkup.com/sipe.html . So, why allow Fr Rossetti to give the impression that Fr. Geoghan's "case" is about all that there is in this debate?

  And, it is world-wide:-
  1. Huge adverse publicity in 1985 over Australian repeat offender Fr Michael Glennon facing courts and leading to telepersonality Derryn Hinch defying the law and exposing his previous conviction before the verdict. (Bruce Blyth, In the Shadow of the Cross, 1997, P & B Press, PO Box 81, Como, p 111).
  2. From 1988, the sex abuse convictions of 10 per cent of Newfoundland priests plus orphanage brothers (featured worldwide on television, including images of priests and brothers being hustled along courthouse corridors, and poignant interviews with the survivors), cited in Barry Coldrey's 2001 book Religious Life Without Integrity, p 4.
  3. A Polish cardinal's sneak visits through a tunnel to a junior seminary late at night, reported in March '02.
  4. A Spanish homosexual lover in April '02 handing out videotapes of himself and the local priest having sex, and
  5. A December '02 document of a Boston priest failing to promptly call for medical help as the mother of his two children was dying of a drug overdose.
  These are bizarre enough to reach world-wide audiences. "These things were not done in a corner." But what about the sex-abuse victim-survivors who accept compensation "hush money" privately, and never reach the courts?
  This article stated that one priest offender "is one too many," similar to Archbishop George Pell of Sydney on "60 Minutes" on June 2 '02 who said "There shouldn't be any." The article then says "... it's no more prevalent in the Church than it is in society." Why isn't it FAR LESS than in society, preferably almost NON-EXISTENT? Aren't the bishops and priests supposed to be showing through their celibacy a sign of sacrifice and holiness to the world? (see Pope John XXIII, quoted in E.Gilson, "Souvenir du Père," in La France Catholique, No. 862, 7:vi:1963)

  ABUSE CONTINUES RIGHT TO DECEMBER: The sex abuse continues right to the time of writing, in spite of the damaging court cases and the global publicity:-   The betrayal of a victim seeking help is NOT alone in the annals of these unholy attacks on the young! Do you think the sex-abuser priests can help themselves? Unless Church spokespeople give the whole truth, and that includes a halt to blaming "anti-Catholicism" and supposed "feeding frenzies" by the news media, of what use is it for Fr Rossetti to wish for "greater stress on accountability in church decision-making"? And, think about the word "accountable" -- accountable to whom?

  Father Rossetti is certain that the Church's structures and leadership are not at fault. I offer these instances as evidence of special stupidity:-
  1. The classic case of the (tried everything but dismissal) Bishop Brendan Comiskey of Ferns (Ireland) (The West Australian, Wednesday April 3 2002, p 25), and
  2. The case of Bishop John McCormack of Manchester, New Hampshire, U.S.A., who according to the non-infallible news-media: "In June he assigned to a new parish a priest who had sex with a teenager, arguing that because the youth was 18 he did not consider it child abuse. Challenged in court on why he felt his decision appropriate, he told the court: 'It was not anticipated that it would be made public.'" (The Weekend Australian, "Abuse fighters set sights on bishop," December 28-29 2002, p 8)
  Both bishops lacked more than the Holy Spirit!
  The article says: "Fr Rossetti during his visit to Australia recently ... said 'any sane person' should feel sympathy for the bishops." I'd rather feel sympathy for the thousands of past victims, and those who are presumably still being seduced, and do something to turn "parental rage" into real action to stop repeat criminals being loosed onto unsuspecting families.
  On the occasion of the overdue unseating of Boston Cardinal B. Law in December '02, "In New York, Jesuit Father Thomas Reese, editor of America magazine, said that the cardinal's handling of sex abuse was 'unusually bad' because it continued after the U.S. bishops had established national sex guidelines in 1993." (The Record, "Cardinal Law steps down at Vatican meeting," John Norton, Catholic News Service, 19 Dec '02, p 20) But! but! What about the 1985 "reform" and the 1967 warnings?
  In brief, similar to other religions with clergy child-abusers, the Catholic Church hierarchy only pretends to be reforming itself, when the protests, court cases, and resultant publicity build up. Each such "reform" is a cynical exercise in dishonesty, while the payment of "hush money" and near-criminal appeals for loyalty, continue to be made to the victims and/or their families, as other documents in this series suggest. "Whistleblowers" are sidelined and/or eased out of the ministry, thus lessening the hope for a real attack on the root causes of clergy sex-abuse. Masking the disloyalty of the leaders and the guilt of the abusers are more important to the errant Church leaders than loyalty to their followers.
  I hope that other readers enjoyed the phrase "I think that society's approach to sexuality is bankrupt," and had the same thoughts I did! -- FPP, 30 Dec 02
Busy people could read http://www.multiline.com.au/~johnm/minilist.htm

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