Phil Lawler 5h @philipflawler I have little confidence in the judgment of Washington’s Cardinal McElroy. And although Msgr. Rossetti’s claim that UFOs “are, in fact, demons” strikes me as eccentric, I would not see it as a cause for ecclesiastical discipline. But if Rossetti has lost the cardinal’s confidence, I can’t say that I’m surprised. He lost my confidence 25 years ago. Msgr. Rossetti has always had an instinct for topics that command popular attention, especially the attention of people who are emotionally vulnerable. Today his Saint Michael Center for Spiritual Renewal has an enormous audience of followers, who flock to his “online deliverance sessions.” But before he became a celebrity exorcist, he gained prominence for a different specialty: ministering to priests who were charged with (among other things) the sexual abuse of children. Msgr. Rossetti was the president of the St. Luke Institute, the most prominent of the institutions that treated (some would say “recycled” predatory priests). In that capacity, when the abuse scandal came to light, he advised the bishops: “We need to be careful that we don’t make anyone—whether it’s priests or gays—scapegoats.” While he emerged from the scandal with a reputation as an advocate for abuse victims, at St. Luke’s he had developed an understanding of abusers, and a belief that they are not all that different from the rest of us. While anxious to stop the “scapegoating” of homosexuals, he was ready to cast suspicion on others. An article published in Catholic World Report in 1997, several years before the scandal broke, told of his approach: He believes that most instances of pedophillia are never discovered, and this is especially true of pedophiliac acts committed by women. Rossetti is particularly suspicious of mothers, explaining that it is “easier for a mother in our society to disguise inappropriate conduct with youngsters as maternal acts of cleaning, grooming, and dressing.” Father Rossetti also stresses his belief that there is no connection between homosexuality and pedophilia. In his concluding essay, “Challenge of the People of God,” he reiterates his theory that most people have some degree of sexual attraction to children… He faults the Church for cultivating “a climate of repression and/or obsession.”
I have little confidence in the judgment of Washington’s Cardinal McElroy. And although Msgr. Rossetti’s claim that UFOs “are, in fact, demons” strikes me as eccentric, I would not see it as a cause for ecclesiastical discipline. But if Rossetti has lost the cardinal’s confidence, I can’t say that I’m surprised. He lost my confidence 25 years ago.
Msgr. Rossetti has always had an instinct for topics that command popular attention, especially the attention of people who are emotionally vulnerable. Today his Saint Michael Center for Spiritual Renewal has an enormous audience of followers, who flock to his “online deliverance sessions.” But before he became a celebrity exorcist, he gained prominence for a different specialty: ministering to priests who were charged with (among other things) the sexual abuse of children.
Msgr. Rossetti was the president of the St. Luke Institute, the most prominent of the institutions that treated (some would say “recycled” predatory priests). In that capacity, when the abuse scandal came to light, he advised the bishops: “We need to be careful that we don’t make anyone—whether it’s priests or gays—scapegoats.”
While he emerged from the scandal with a reputation as an advocate for abuse victims, at St. Luke’s he had developed an understanding of abusers, and a belief that they are not all that different from the rest of us. While anxious to stop the “scapegoating” of homosexuals, he was ready to cast suspicion on others. An article published in Catholic World Report in 1997, several years before the scandal broke, told of his approach:
He believes that most instances of pedophillia are never discovered, and this is especially true of pedophiliac acts committed by women. Rossetti is particularly suspicious of mothers, explaining that it is “easier for a mother in our society to disguise inappropriate conduct with youngsters as maternal acts of cleaning, grooming, and dressing.” Father Rossetti also stresses his belief that there is no connection between homosexuality and pedophilia. In his concluding essay, “Challenge of the People of God,” he reiterates his theory that most people have some degree of sexual attraction to children… He faults the Church for cultivating “a climate of repression and/or obsession.”
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