General
Monsignor Rossetti's Learning From Our Mistakes (2012)
Symposium Toward Healing and Renewal, held at the Pontifical Gregorian University, February 6-9, 2012
Learning From Our Mistakes: Responding Effectively to Child Sexual Abusers by Rev. Msgr. Stephen J. Rossetti PhD DMin
Responding effectively to allegations of child sexual abuse is complex and difficult. There is a complicated web of competing demands- pastoral, legal, clinical, and public relations which can confuse, confound and even paralyze. It is publicly well known that, at times, in our responding, we have failed.
We have done so partly because we have not fully understood this crime and its pathology. Systemic features likewise have impeded a rapid and open response. But there are clear signs of progress and hope. While these cases do not make the newspapers, in recent years many Church leaders have responded well. An increasing number of bishops from several countries have intervened decisively and effectively when allegations of child sexual abuse have surfaced.