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Catholic Priests Can't be Cured of Pedophilia

Thread ID: 18396 | Posts: 1 | Started: 2005-05-25

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Stigmata [OP]

2005-05-25 13:28 | User Profile

Reports Show Failure of Therapy for Priests

  • Pedophile clerics often continued to abuse children during and after treatment, and were allowed to continue in ministry. By Jean Guccione and William Lobdell, Times Staff Writers Documents released Tuesday reveal the failure of the Diocese of Orange's decades-old strategy of trying to cure pedophile priests with therapy, detailing how the clerics continued to abuse young boys while in treatment but were cleared by psychologists to return to the ministry. The files also show that Roman Catholic officials ignored a recommendation to limit one cleric to an adults-only ministry and allowed him to set and enforce his own rules against being alone with children.
    The hundreds of pages of psychotherapist reports, billings and other internal memos were the latest documents released as part of a court-approved $100-million settlement reached in December between the Orange diocese and 90 alleged victims. Last week, Los Angeles County Superior Court Judge Peter D. Lichtman ordered the production of more than 10,000 pages from the confidential personnel files of 15 accused priests and teachers. Those papers document the transfer of predator priests from parish to parish and diocese to diocese, as well as efforts to protect them from prosecution while failing to warn parishioners of the danger. The newly released reports detail the psychological evaluation and treatment of nine priests ordered into counseling after allegations of sexual abuse surfaced — a typical church response until a "zero tolerance" policy was adopted by U.S. bishops in 2002, requiring removal of abusive priests. Several priests underwent failed attempts at therapy — some costing the Orange diocese more than $3,000 a month, the papers show. The reports reveal failed efforts to rehabilitate three of Orange County's most notorious predator priests, Siegfried Widera, Andrew Christian Andersen and Eleuterio "Al" Ramos. In the case of a fourth priest, Michael Pecharich, a psychologist recommended to Orange Bishop Norman F. McFarland in 1996 that the cleric — who admitted to repeatedly molesting a boy — be restricted to an adults-only ministry, a therapist report shows. The psychologist urged McFarland to keep Pecharich away from altar boys, catechism classes and other church activities involving unsupervised contact with children, according to a 1996 psychological assessment and report. Instead, church officials allowed Pecharich to remain for six more years as pastor of south Orange County's San Francisco Solano Church, across the street from Santa Margarita High School and affiliated with a nearby Catholic elementary school. According to notes from a 1997 meeting, McFarland and Msgr. John Urell, who investigated sex abuse allegations at the time, ordered Pecharich to abide by his own self-imposed restrictions, which included never being alone with a minor. Pecharich asked his supervisors if he should tell a parish staff member about his new rules, according to the notes signed and dated by Urell. "It was decided there was no reason to do so," the note said. After he admitted kissing and inappropriately touching a boy four times a decade earlier, the priest was praised for his honesty by both his therapists and church officials, the reports say. Six more abuse allegations were later made against Pecharich. In 2002, Pecharich was removed from ministry by Bishop Tod D. Brown under a court-approved "one strike" policy to get rid of molesting priests. Pecharich, 59, of Long Beach, remains a priest but is barred from ministry. He has declined to comment about the allegations against him. Church officials also let another priest, Widera, decide his own fate, the documents show. Before Widera joined the Orange diocese in 1977, he had been convicted of molesting a boy in Milwaukee and had another allegation pending. Orange church officials took him anyway. But when Widera was accused of molesting three boys in Orange County in 1985, Bishop William R. Johnson gave him three options: get treatment, go to a monastery or leave the priesthood, according to new documents. A note in his file at that time stated "No one else will take you." [url="http://www.latimes.com/news/local/state/la-me-psychreport25may25,1,2020499.story?coll=la-news-state&ctrack=1&cset=true"]http://www.latimes.com/news/local/state/la-me-psychreport25may25,1,2020499.story?coll=la-news-state&ctrack=1&cset=true[/url] ---