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Published: November 20, 2008
“You have helped us to save the vocations of many”
Fresno bishop promises $10,000 to Maryland center that treats troubled priests
Fresno Bishop John Steinbock has pledged $10,000 to support the Saint Luke Institute in Silver Spring, Maryland – the famous treatment center for wayward priests. Among the Institute’s more infamous patients were serial pederasts and defrocked priests Rudy Kos of Dallas and John Geoghan of Boston, who was murdered by a fellow inmate while serving a prison term for his crimes. Four years ago, Bishop Steinbock sent one of his own priests to the Institute after parishioners discovered their pastor had been soliciting liaisons on a homosexual web site.
 A letter obtained by California Catholic Daily to Bishop Steinbock from Msgr. Stephen Rossetti, president of Saint Luke Institute, indicates that on June 17, the Institute received the second installment of a $10,000 pledge from the Fresno diocese. So far, according to the letter, the diocese has paid $4000 toward the pledge, with a balance remaining of $6000.
“Thank you for your most generous support,” wrote Msgr. Rossetti. “Your second gift of $2,000 from the Diocese of Fresno toward your pledge to our Fund Campaign will enable us to continue to assist priests, deacons and women and men religious who come from dioceses or communities who cannot afford treatment.”
In the letter, Rossetti says “more than 80% of those who have entered our program return to an active, appropriate ministry… You have helped us to save the vocations of many priests and religious.”
One vocation apparently saved by the Institute was that of Fr. Jean-Michael Lastiri, removed by Bishop John Steinbock as pastor of St. Patrick’s in Merced in 2004 after parishioners discovered that Fr. Lastiri had frequented a homosexual web site. Because Fr. Lastiri’s behavior was “compulsive and addictive,” the bishop said at the time, he was sending him to St. Luke Institute for “psychological and spiritual counseling.”
In June 2005, Bishop Steinbock tried to place Fr. Lastiri as an associate at Bakersfield’s St. Philip the Apostle parish. After parishioners protested, however, the bishop withdrew the appointment and named Fr. Lastiri diocesan director of detention ministry. The bishop told parishioners at St. Philip the Apostle that Fr. Lastiri’s problem was not “criminal sexual behavior” but “has been one of addiction... both to the fantasy world of the Internet and to the spending of money.”
In 2006, Bishop Steinbock appointed Fr. Lastiri diocesan director of liturgy, worship, and evangelization, a post he continues to hold today, according to the diocesan web site.
According to its web site, the Saint Luke Institute “addresses a wide range of psychological and spiritual problems such as depression, anxiety, compulsive dysfunctional behaviors (such as gambling or incurring excessive debt), alcohol and substance abuse, a wide range of sexual issues, chronic interpersonal problems, sexual abuse, professional boundary violations, and other difficulties of those who minister in the Catholic Church.” The Institute was founded in 1977 as an outpatient alcoholism treatment center for priests and religious, and four years later began offering residential treatment. Since 1996, it has been located at its current “42-acre campus, only six miles from downtown Washington, D.C.,” says the web site, and “has secluded space for reflection and ample resources for physical fitness and recreation.”
Saint Luke Institute and similar programs have been criticized by some professionals for its treatment philosophy. In a 2007 interview with California Catholic Daily, Dr. Judith Reisman, who has served as an expert witness in lawsuits involving sexual abuse, specifically named Saint Luke as among the treatment centers using what she called the deeply flawed and scientifically suspect “Kinsey model” when dealing with sexual dysfunction. “The Johns Hopkins Clinic and St. Luke Institute are two Kinseyan therapeutic venues,” said Reisman.
In May of 2002, the state of Maryland temporarily halted admissions to the Institute following the suicide of Fr. Alfred Bietighoger, a client receiving treatment after being accused of molesting boys. A month earlier, the Boston Globe published a story in which a priest sent to the Institute after being accused of sexually molesting a boy said a doctor there had attached a device to him to measure his arousal and then showed him various images of children in sexual positions. Another priest told the Globe that priests joked that the Institute's motto was "Better living through chemistry." The clinic was at the forefront in prescribing Depo-Provera, a birth control drug, which inhibits sexual arousal in men.
A brief biography of Msgr. Rossetti on the Institute’s web site says he is a priest of the Diocese of Syracuse, a licensed psychologist in Maryland and Massachusetts, and obtained his Ph.D. in psychology from Boston College. “Msgr. Rossetti lectures and gives workshops to clergy and religious in several countries on spirituality, sexuality, and mental health,” says the biography.
Posted Thursday, November 20, 2008 12:26 AM By Central Valley
LOL, this is classic Steinbock. The Fresno diocese is now under siege of the Bishop’s Annual Appeal (read: shake down campaign). Several years ago the previous shake down campaign Faith, Family, Future was supposed to have raised funds for Catholic school, vocations etc. Recently in a parish bulletin there was a letter from a seminarian describing cuts in seminarian funding. Why the cut in seminarian funding if the previous shake down campaign was supposed to support seminarians? Could it be that Steinbock Inc. in Fresno are funneling money to various dens on iniquity like the notorious St. Luke Institute?
Will Bishop Steinbock offer Fr. Farrow, the gay priest from Fresno who railed against proposition 8 an all expense paid trip to St. Lukes? With Fr. Farrows departure from the notorious Newman Center in Fresno, the center is now staffed by a deacon and a weekend sacramental priest. In a recent letter to the Newman Center, Steinbock mentioned the possibility of another parish in the diocese being priest less in January. So the Fresno diocese has gay cruising priest, gay priest in open rebellion against the Church and at the same time Steinbock refuses to allow a full time priest from the Fraternity of St. Peter to establish an apostolate in the Fresno diocese. Steinbock goes to the extreme of forbidding traditional Catholics from fulfilling their Sunday obligation at a Norbertine convent in the diocese over the objections of a local parish priest who fears a loss of revenue for himself and his priest friend in residence. Traditional groups have gone as far as searching out priest to say the Extraordinary Form from outside the diocese but Steinbock gives the excuse that they ( the orthodox priests) would not “fit” in with his priest because they only say Mass in the Extraordinary Form. Could it be that these outside priest are too Catholic for Steinbock and his inner circle in Fresno? Thank you CCD for again exposing Bishop John Steinbock for what he is. Writing on the Fresno diocese could be a full time job. Keep up the good reporting.
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Posted Thursday, November 20, 2008 1:44 AM By Charles O'Connell
Let those who are accustomed to frothing off at the mouth about Bishops and Priests, please recall that we, as laypersons, don't occupy roles of equal dignity with those who confect the very Body, Blood, Soul and Divinity of Jesus Christ in the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass. Of course it is unfortunate about the involvement of Kinsey in the St. Luke Institute. But as laypersons, our only resort - after parishioners of the Fresno Diocese have gently and respectfully brought to their Bishop's attention the matter of Kinsey's involvement - is to pray for all the ordained clergy involved, even Msgr. Rossetti. God is the only one who can solve these difficulties. If your concern is true and heartfelt, address Him directly in prayer, through our Blessed Mother. Otherwise, dilettante complaints that seek to offer no good to drive out evil, lead to morbid thinking that ultimately gives power to the enemy of souls.
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Posted Thursday, November 20, 2008 2:44 AM By Julia
$10,000 is a drop in the bucket; still, that money would be better spent treating the victims of these perverted priests.
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Posted Thursday, November 20, 2008 4:11 AM By Canon Lawyer
Although Rosetti will deny it, as the Boston Globe confirms, that St. Luke's Institute has failed for years to comply with principles expressed in an Instruction of the Secretariat of State dated August 6, 1976, (Prot. N. 311157). Pope Pius XII condemned such invasive testing as completely immoral.
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Posted Thursday, November 20, 2008 5:17 AM By JG
What a shame! These programs are secular from the get-go. I'm surprised they haven't been shut down much less supported by the bishops. Better to support the efforts of such programs like the Imago Dei Clinic. I first read about this clinic in Homiletic and Pastoral Review. In that article by its founder, Dr. Dilsaver, priestly sexual sin is final diagnosed according to the mind of St. Thomas Aquinas and the Church (I think article is still available on the website). Imago Dei Clinic's website says it works with clergy and religious. One would think that this clinic and its Catholic therapy would be endorsed by every orthodox bishop in the country and by the Vatican. But instead the Bishops continue to send their priests to cesspools like St. Luke's.
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Posted Thursday, November 20, 2008 5:54 AM By St. Christopher
How is it that Steinbock became a priest or a bishop? Did Steinbock actually appoint a clearly homosexual priest Fr. Lastiri as the head of that diocese's "liturgy, worship, and evangelization?" This is truly amazing, but understandable, given the present Church hierarchy's tender spot for homosexual clergy and their leadership. I wonder what the people of the diocese know about where their money goes and what they would say about it. And the Saint Luke Institute -- what a place (and do they truly follow the "Kinsey model"?) It seems that no cleric should ever be sent there; something about the inmates running the asylum. Wow, a Catholic institute modeled on the teachings of a true sexual pervert, with the avowed intention of taking homosexual predator priests, giving them some training, then a "cure" certificate, then returning them to Catholic parishes where they can, and likely do, continue to ravage innocent youth. Is there something terribly wrong with this approach? But then, this is the New Church, which gladly seems to accept such things. Soon, however, there will be little left, once all the litigation is completed. "Rorate caeli desuper et nubes pluant justum."
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Posted Thursday, November 20, 2008 6:06 AM By Bearwatcher
Thank God the people of St. Philip the Apostle parish had enough sense to know that they did not want someone so deeply disordered leading their parish as pastor.
Is this meant to demonize Father Lastiri? No. Father Lastiri does deserve our compassion, but the Catechism of the Catholic Church is crystal clear that homosexuality is a grave disorder. Those afflicted by it should not be leading Catholics. More than 80 percent of the sexual abuse cases involved priests and teenaged boys. Father Lastiri is not a demon, but a very troubled man and it is not compassionate that the Catholics in Bishop Steinbock's flock should be used as a "testing ground" for social experimentation to "prove" that Lastiri should be trusted. By the secular code, he is not a criminal, so let him live in the secular world. Compassion does not mean forcing errant priests down the throats of faithful.
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Posted Thursday, November 20, 2008 7:32 AM By Anita
I wonder if the people of Fresno appreciate their money being spent this way. I have heard some first hand reports of the treatment at this 'place'. The Catholic Church is in deep trouble and this is an example of what is wrong. They treat sin like addiction, a medical problem. That's what happens when liberals take over. We reap what we sow.
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Posted Thursday, November 20, 2008 8:29 AM By Anne d' Auray Tracy
St. Luke's is notorious. The staff lied about a priest (Fr. David Holly) who was fugitive from California and in residence. They told the police who had come to arrest him that he wasn't there. The police didn't believe them and executed a search. They found Holly under a stair case. St. Luke's lies about its recovery rate. The truth is no one recovers from pedophila or (using a distinction they like to make) ephebophilia, claiming their "patients" are not true pedophiles and are easier than other sex offenders to treat successfully. It's a lie. Fr. Canice Connors who was the CEO of St. Luke's in the 90's lied under oath three times about their treatment program when I and a partner were working hard to keep the institute from moving from Suitland, Md. to Adelphi, Md. where there are school's and many residences. Stephen Rosetti wrote a book called SLAYER OF THE SOUL. It is his opinion and that of other Catholic treaters that pedophilia could happen to anyone, a bald faced lie, and that these predators are not monsters. Treaters point our that these predators were told by their mothers it was wrong to have sex with females so they thought it was OK to have sex with boys. Ridiculous! I went to catholic school all my life and we were told you can't have sex outside of marriage with anyone including oneself. St. Luke's is outside the mainstream of treatment for sex offenders. At least that is what secular treaters say. Look deeper into St. Luke's and other Catholic treatment centers and the relationship they have with bishops. It really irks me that Rosetti was made a monsignor. But that happens in the Church to cooperators with bishops all the time regarding the clergy sex abuse cases.
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Posted Thursday, November 20, 2008 9:04 AM By Rob
Thiis is insane. God help us!
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Posted Thursday, November 20, 2008 9:11 AM By Maryanne Leonard
I have found Bishop Steinboch to be a cheerful, loving and kind-hearted human being who cares very much about the priests in his diocese and indeed people in general. He is wise, wonderful and obviously trying to do his best to help priests and religious in need of psychological support. This is a very specialized population and requires uniquely qualified professionals working in a highly specialized professional setting.
The joke that the Institute's motto was "better living through chemistry" is of decades old vintage heard throughout the land in recovery circles and clinical settings throughout the land. It isn't worthy of inclusion in an article about a topic as serious as saving religious from their personal afflictions and addictions.
The writer seems to expect unfailing superhuman perfection from all priests and religious and all psychological recovery centers and, oh yes, any previous patients.
As a condemnation of this recovery center, and a smear of Bishop Steinbock, this article has the wallop of a feather.
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Posted Thursday, November 20, 2008 10:50 AM By Kristen J
What makes this even worse is that the Bishop is holding ALL parish services hostage unless he gets money for his many unimportant or outright bad projects (ranging from stuff like this to vast sums for "lay leaders" and making people feel good about their cultural heritages)! We've been told that, like all parishes, if our parish (an excellent, faithful parish under a great priest) doesn't meet its "goal" for the Bishop's appeal, the remainder will be assessed against the parish. Father told us that if we cannot meet the goal, he will have to hold special collections or write a check out of parish funds, which could well means cuts in our parish ministries.
Many of us do not give to the Bishop not out of hardness of heart (for we turn around and give the money to other charities) but out of deep conscience -- he is doing bad things with the money! Knowing this, the Bishop has chosen to hold our parish services hostage until his demands are met. Yet another example of a ruthless business model, rather than a Good Shepherd model, of Church leadership.
Please pray for our Bishop, our diocese, and our parishes!
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Posted Thursday, November 20, 2008 11:06 AM By Grisha
Kristen J.: Congratulations on having a parish you love! You write: "like all parishes, if our parish (an excellent, faithful parish under a great priest) doesn't meet its "goal" for the Bishop's appeal, the remainder will be assessed against the parish. Father told us that if we cannot meet the goal, he will have to hold special collections or write a check out of parish funds," This is the way it works, I believe, throughout the Church in the United States. In our parish we openly refer to it as a "tax". There is probably a fairer, more rational way to spread the cost of running the dioceses, however we are such a conservative institution and have so many other pressing issues that such change will be long time in coming
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Posted Thursday, November 20, 2008 12:05 PM By Ann
Maryanne - keep drinking the Bishop Steinbock kool-aid. The rest of us, however, woke up during the Lastiri scandal and others have finally taken off their blinders thanks to the Farrow/Newman Center scandal. Can you say "priestless parishes?"
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Posted Thursday, November 20, 2008 12:31 PM By Sick and Tired
Okay Maryanne, I'm fine with this so-called "treatment" as long as the "rehabilitated" priests with "alcohol and substance abuse, a wide range of sexual issues, chronic interpersonal problems, sexual abuse, professional boundary violations" are sent to YOUR parish only. Unbelievable. Because you find someone to be "cheerful, kind, wise, wonderful, blah, blah blah," it seems their judgement is beyond critique. Nevermind the seriousness of the actions committed by those that this man is re-introducing back into ministry, or the fact that there is dispute over the validity of the Kinsey model itself.
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Posted Thursday, November 20, 2008 12:52 PM By Ann
Maryanne - keep drinking the Bishop Steinbock kool-aid. The rest of us, however, woke up during the Lastiri scandal and others have finally taken off their blinders thanks to the Farrow/Newman Center scandal. Can you say "priestless parishes?"
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Posted Thursday, November 20, 2008 2:23 PM By Dave
There is much more to this donation than we would want to know.
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Posted Thursday, November 20, 2008 2:48 PM By Eileen
Charles O'Connell, Would you ever walk out on a dangerous battlefield while surrounded with exploding bomb blasts and gunfire and say this to the opposing force, "Of course, it is unfortunate about your involvment with evil?" Bishop Fulton Sheen's words were not frothing, they were the charitable, instructive and truthful words when he said...."Who is going to save our Church? Not our Bishops, not our priests and religious. It is up to the people. You have the minds, the eyes, the ears to save the Church. Your mission is to see that your priests act like priests, your bishops like bishops and your religious act like religious" Bearwatcher, Thank-you for your great response! Maryanne, I am glad that Bishop Steinboch was kind-hearted to you. That is part of his responsibilty. The other part of his responsibility is to defend and follow the teachings of the Church with at least as much if not more tenacity than he defends the serious homosexual disorders of priests. Cheerfulness is only beneficial to souls when it is backed up with obedience and faithfulness. Nero was very cheerful while Rome was burning. Just a question for those who live in that area. Has Bishop Steinboch obeyed and followed the instructions from the Holy Father to show a wide and generous application of the Tridentine Mass? If he has, that is wonderful. If he hasn't, that demonstrates a pretty significant sign that he is mostly gifted at being cheerful. Many people are fooled when they are told that there are not enough priests to say the Mass. The Fraternity of St. Peters who generously offer assistance have been turned down in many areas. This is so the local Bishop can remain cheerful and teach personal cheerfulness to the flock instead of personal holiness.
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Posted Thursday, November 20, 2008 5:18 PM By Jim
This is just another example of why I no longer choose to give any money to activities of the Fresno Diocese. My money for donations are much better spent supporting Catholic radio. At least then I know that my money is going for Catholic teaching.
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Posted Thursday, November 20, 2008 5:36 PM By JD
What has the Diocese of Fresno done to save the vocation of the priest who helped to bring Father Lasteri's inappropriate behavior to light? Nothing! He has been exiled and left broken for doing exactly what he should have done. No compassion or Christian charity for him. God bless him and let us all remember him in our prayers
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Posted Thursday, November 20, 2008 7:21 PM By Central Valley
“I have found Bishop Steinbock to be a cheerful, loving and kind-hearted human being who cares very much about the priests in his diocese and indeed people in general. He is wise, wonderful and obviously trying to do his best to help priests and religious in need of psychological support”
Cheerful? Yes, he is referred to as the smiling bishop. Loving and kind-hearted who cares for people and priest…Well, if you of are a modern slant as a layman or a priest then Bp. Steinbock will like you and your checkbook. Kind-hearted…Well no, when the lay faithful and priest warned Bp. Steinbock of Fr. Listiri, Fr. Farrow, Fr. Purcell(now in prison in Arizona) and others not publicly out, he told the laymen and priests they were committing sin against justice in their accusations. The priests and laymen were right but Steinbock would not listen. When legitimate accusations surfaced, Steinbock hid behind his collar and protected his boys, who turned out to be in the wrong.
Cares about people in general? If you are a traditional Catholic this does not apply in the Fresno diocese. There are priests available from the Fraternity of St. Peter, The Institute of Christ the King, Norbertines and Legionaries of Christ, none of these orders are active to any great extent in the Fresno diocese but they could be if Steinbock would let them in. Instead Steinbock offers parishes to the Oblates of St. Jospeh and the Sister Servants of the Blessed Sacrament, who last year were going to invite pro-abortion, pro-sodomite community activist Dolores Huerta to speak at a Catholic school in the diocese. This issue was addressed to the diocese, school and parish, none responded until CCD ran a story of that fiasco, Had the orders mentioned above or an orthodox priest been assigned to the parish and school, someone of Huerta’s ilk would never have invited onto the school or church grounds except for confession. Look hard at the past seventeen or so years of Steinbocks reign in the diocese and you will not find many positive things.
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Posted Thursday, November 20, 2008 7:24 PM By Dave N.
Ick! And let's not confuse the magistres (the teachers) with the Magisterium (the teaching/teaching office). If we have poorly educated, unskillful or harmful teachers, the lay people need to speak out or we will never be given better ones. To say so does no harm to the teaching office—just the opposite—pointing things like this out upholds the dignity of the Magisterium.
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Posted Thursday, November 20, 2008 10:57 PM By Lauda Sion
"What has the Diocese of Fresno done to save the vocation of the priest who helped to bring Father Lasteri's inappropriate behavior to light? Nothing! He has been exiled and left broken for doing exactly what he should have done. No compassion or Christian charity for him." EXACTLY right, JD. You would think that if Bishop Steinbock were truly concerned about the priest shortage, he would reinstate the immensely popular and talented Fr. Joe Baca and put him in an orthodox parish where he could succeed. But no. Maybe under the next bishop....and may God send us a righteous one.
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Posted Friday, November 21, 2008 6:23 PM By JD
Lauda, we need to pray at what you have stated may happen.
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Posted Friday, January 02, 2009 11:18 AM By Sierra
After a very public bear sighting in Merced, Fr. Lasteri has been relocated to a higher and more remote location.. He is now the administrator of Our Lady of the Sierra's in Oakhurst. Continue to pray for him and his new parish. DO NOT POST THIS COMMENT... MAY BE A STORY HERE, THOUGH. McP
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Posted Monday, August 03, 2009 3:17 PM By Kalen
Lord have mercy on us all.
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