Odd: 78% of the alleged victims were age 11 to 17

By Diogenes ( articles ) | Feb 18, 2004

Just two months after he became dean of St. John's undergraduate college, the Rev. George C. Berthold was accused of making improper advances toward a freshman seminarian, including kissing him on the lips.

"What I'm afraid of is we're going into this witch hunt for gays,'' said the Rev. Stephen Rossetti, a psychologist and sex abuse consultant to the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops.

According to a one-page police report obtained by The Spokesman-Review, a male prostitute in Chicago told police there that he met a Washington state man at a Knights of Columbus convention in August 1986, agreed to perform oral sex and that the man began to strangle him during sex. The victim never knew his client was a bishop.

"What I'm afraid of is we're going into this witch hunt for gays,'' said the Rev. Stephen Rossetti, a psychologist and sex abuse consultant to the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops.

The Rev. Milton T. Walsh was booked on charges of two counts of lewd or lascivious acts with a child under 14 years old and is free on $100,000 bail. He was placed on leave in August from St. Patrick's Seminary in Menlo Park, where he has been a professor of theology since 1997.

"What I'm afraid of is we're going into this witch hunt for gays,'' said the Rev. Stephen Rossetti, a psychologist and sex abuse consultant to the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops.

In an interview Thursday night, Bishop Anthony J. O'Connell, 63, acknowledged Dixon's allegation that they touched inappropriately in bed after Dixon sought him out for counseling as a teen-age seminary student.

"What I'm afraid of is we're going into this witch hunt for gays,'' said the Rev. Stephen Rossetti, a psychologist and sex abuse consultant to the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops.

According to the police report, the officer shined his flashlight into the driver's side window and discovered Fr. Mariano, then 43, frantically wiping makeup off his face while a young man, aged 16, scrambled to fasten his belt buckle in the reclined passenger seat of Mariano's gold Chevy Cavalier, which was registered to the Jesuits. ... They collected from Mariano's car a multicolored floral makeup kit, a black headband and two 3-inch hoop earrings.

"What I'm afraid of is we're going into this witch hunt for gays,'' said the Rev. Stephen Rossetti, a psychologist and sex abuse consultant to the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops.