Rev. Stephen Rossetti: Few priests molesters

The Rev. Stephen Rossetti

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(CNN) -- Roman Catholic Church documents released this week show that a Massachusetts cardinal allowed a priest to continue working in several parishes after allegations that the clergyman molested children.

In the wake of this revelation, politicians, parents and journalists have requested that Cardinal Bernard Law of the Boston Archdiocese resign from his post.

CNN anchor Paula Zahn spoke Thursday with the Rev. Stephen Rossetti, a priest and psychologist, on the issue of pedophilia in the Catholic Church.

ZAHN: While Cardinal Law and other Catholic leaders have been accused of sending abusive priests back into the parishes, Father Steve Rossetti, a Catholic priest and a psychologist who has treated priests who have been accused of sexual abuse, believes that priests who molest children can be successfully treated and return to work.

That brings us to our big question? Can a priest who molests children actually be successfully treated? Father Rossetti has served as a consultant to the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops on the subject of child sexual abuse, and he joins us now from Washington. ...

Let's talk a little bit about the work you have done. You are a priest. You are a psychologist. And you have treated hundreds of other priests who have had problems of this kind. How common are sexual problems among priests?

ROSSETTI: The numbers we have right now suggest that about 1.6 [percent] to 2 percent of priests are sexually involved with minors sometime during their career. So what we see is this number is probably the same or maybe even less than in society. So it's not really a priests' problem. It is a societal problem. And sad to say that there are a significant percentage of adults in our society who sexually molest minors.

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ZAHN: Despite the outcry we're seeing about what has gone on and what the cardinals have been accused of obfuscating and hiding and all this, do you think the church is anymore sensitive today to these problems than they were five years ago?

ROSSETTI: Paula, I have worked with scores of cases. And perhaps even hundreds. And the bishops are concerned. I think one of the mistakes we've made is we haven't really communicated our sincere horror and anger and frustration with priests who sexually molest minors. I think that's why people say the church doesn't get it. Because somehow we haven't been transparent enough in showing what we are doing.

The fact is that the American bishops are responding to these cases. And I have worked with them in the last 13 years, and most of the time they do a good job responding. But there are exceptions. And those exceptions make the headlines, and when they happen they are just a terrible tragedy.

ZAHN: Well, walk us through what you describe as the usual course of action if a bishop or a cardinal hears accusations about a priest doing something inappropriate with a child. Where do they start?

ROSSETTI: Well, the first thing a bishop must do is follow reporting laws. Sad to say though, that most of these cases are not adjudicated because the statute of limitations has run out or the victims don't want to report it. Or there is not enough evidence.

So the result is that the bishop -- sad to say -- has to become judge and jury whether or not the allegations are founded. So what he does is if the civil courts and criminal courts do not adjudicate it, then he has to decide whether or not the man is guilty. So he'll take him out of ministry and try to respond to the victims in a pastoral and sensitive way. And then try to determine what's best to do with that priest. He'll often send him for an evaluation, look at the priest and find out if he thinks there's some credibility to the allegations and send him through treatment.

ZAHN: But isn't it the case that some of these priests who have been accused of doing horrible things to children have certainly just been reshuffled in the system without going through any of those steps you just described?

ROSSETTI: It has not been my experience. Now I've been reading the papers of course like everyone, and the cases of [the Revs. John] Geoghan and [Paul] Shanley and those are just terrible situations. There are these awful situations of classic pedophiles we call them who are treatment resistant and should be thrown out of priesthood.

Many of the other molesters though do respond well to treatment, and the suggestion we have right now -- the numbers suggest that about 2.6 [percent] to 2.9 percent of those who go through treatment do relapse. So most offenders respond well to treatment and can leave chaste lives.

ZAHN: So you brought up the issue of Father Shanley and Father Geoghan. You know these were men who were treated over and over again at numerous centers. And I know you say that there is just a small percentage of folks who relapse or [for whom] treatment doesn't help at all. What is the problem with them?

ROSSETTI: Well, there are many different kinds of child molesters. If you have a father, for example, who molests his 14-year-old daughter, he is a child molester. If you have a man like John Geoghan who molests scores of young people, he is a child molester. They are both criminals. They both have committed a serious crime and sin. But clinically speaking they are very different.

The father who molests his 14-year-old daughter will respond to treatment much better than someone like John Geoghan. And somehow we as a church and a society need to begin to differentiate these groups and respond to them differently.

People like John Geoghan, I believe, need to be in jail perhaps for a very long time. And if they do get out at all, they need to be seriously monitored for the rest of their lives. The father who molests his daughter may respond better to treatment and may be returned to society in a way that is safe for minors.

ZAHN: In how many of the cases would you say where you have had success -- if law enforcement agencies had gotten involved, would the priests have been convicted of a crime?

ROSSETTI: Sad to say very few of the child molesters -- whether they are priests or not or whether they are just people in society -- are adjudicated. ... They are hard to criminally adjudicate these cases. One of the problems we have in the church is that when the victims come forward they are almost always adults, and the statute of limitations has almost always run out. I think we as a society need to rethink the statute of limitations for child abuse cases. Perhaps extend it.

ZAHN: Before we let you go, we want you to share perhaps a success story with us. Because I think you've got some members of the audience scratching their head. They don't deny your success rate. But they probably wonder how wise it would be to reintroduce that priest into an environment again where there might be a temptation.

ROSSETTI: That is an excellent question. I never encourage a priest who has molested minors to be returned to a parish or any ministry that involves minors. But the big question comes, where do we send them?

If the church simply releases them all into society, then they go out unsupervised and they are more likely to be at risk and more likely to offend against minors. What's the safest thing for children? The safest thing is to send them to treatment, breaking the cycle of abuse. And then putting them into a limited ministry with no direct contact with minors where they are supervised. That's what I think is safest for children and best for society.

ZAHN: Final question for you and you know I don't want to put you on the spot here. But there are some people and these are lifelong Catholics who suggest that if you -- let's say force the resignation of Cardinal Law or other bishops who might have swept some of these, are alleged to have swept some of these problems under the rug -- were forced to resign that that in and of itself might slow down this cycle of abuse. Do you buy that?

ROSSETTI: Well, I think the big thing I see as a psychologist -- people are saying there must be something basically wrong with the church, basically wrong with the priesthood or formation or celibacy or something. But if you look at it from a broader perspective, this is not simply a church problem or a priest problem. This is a societal problem, and priests are no more likely to be involved.

So what we are looking at really is a broader issue. How can we stop adults from sexually molesting minors wherever they, whether they are priests or whatever? We found that two-thirds of priests who sexually molest minors themselves were sexually molested as a minor. So what we are seeing is a cycle of abuse. It's not specifically a church problem, I believe, but rather a societal problem. We need to break the cycle of abuse and make the world and the church safer for children.