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Some priests accused of child sexual abuse were sent to psychiatric clinics for treatment

At least 30 priests accused of child sex abuse in Pennsylvania went briefly to St. Luke Institute. But some recommendations from staff were ignored.

Credit: Jeff Swensen/Getty Images

Parishioners worship during a mass to celebrate the Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary at St Paul Cathedral, the mother church of the Pittsburgh Diocese on August 15, 2018 in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania.

Though Pennsylvania enacted the first U.S. law 55 years ago that required mandatory reporting of child abuse to law enforcement, its Catholic dioceses didn't take it to heart.

Those first laws in the state placed the duty to report abuse on doctors and other medical staff. At least three states — Nebraska, Tennessee and Utah — required all people to report evidence of child abuse, according to a September 2014 Villanova Law Review article.

But much of the damage that Pennsylvania's abusive priests inflicted didn't leave bruises. And when those priests were discovered, bishops and other priests who were called on to investigate the allegations didn't treat them as crimes and rarely told law enforcement.

Instead, St. Luke Institute in the Washington suburb of Adelphi, Maryland, keeps appearing in the 900-page grand jury report released Tuesday. In total, at least 30 priests were sent there.

The report, which lists 301 priests in six Catholic dioceses accused of child abuse, names psychiatric treatment centers as part of the church's plan in dealing with problem priests.

Other treatment centers mentioned include St. John Vianney, a church-run facility in Downingtown, Pennsylvania, where at least 17 priests were sent, and Southdown Institute, a psychiatric facility in Ontario, Canada, where several others took sabbaticals.

“(The dioceses) for an appearance of integrity, send priests for ‘evaluation’ at church-run psychiatric treatment centers,” the grand jury report states. “They allow these experts to ‘diagnose’ whether the priest was a pedophile, based largely on the priest’s 'self-reports' and regardless of whether the priest had actually engaged in sexual contact with a child.”

These clinics also were highlighted in The Boston Globe's 2002 investigation into Boston Archdiocese priests.

St. Luke Institute's website calls itself an “international Catholic education and treatment center dedicated to healthy life and ministry for priests, deacons and men and women religious.”

Susan Gibbs, a spokeswoman for St. Luke, said her treatment center is part of the solution.

"(St. Luke) provided external information to the diocese so they could make the right steps," she said. "By sending people to treatment, you're giving them treatment that will hopefully end the abuse."

Sister Dorothy Heiderscheit, chief executive of Southland Institute, said the church does not run her facility. It is layman owned and operated.

She declined to comment further, citing confidentiality issues.

St. John Vianney officials could not be reached for comment.

What is St. Luke Institute?

St. Luke Institute opened more than 40 years ago for the treatment of alcohol and substance abuse. But in the mid-1980s, officials at the institute began to notice a trend: Many alcoholics often had sexual or personality issues in addition to their addiction, so St. Luke's began treating broader issues.

The institute's website says it now helps with recovery from “challenges such as anxiety, addiction, depression, substance abuse, boundary concerns, interpersonal problems, sexual issues and trauma.”

Since the facility opened in 1977, it has treated more than 10,000 people. Sexual-abuse problems have been only a small portion of that, Gibbs said.

For all clients, St. Luke uses a five-day evaluation that includes an "intensive" look into medical, psychological and spiritual evaluations. Following that, the diocese, the client and St. Luke therapists meet to discuss the findings and a recommendation is made from that.

Often, those who are recommended and receive inpatient treatment stay for six months. After that, St. Luke officials sends a recommendation on whether the client should return to ministry.

In some cases, the evaluation can help create a diagnosis based on the American Psychiatric Association Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders. When those guidelines can't classify a client under a diagnosis — such as pedophilia — they can make additional recommendations that can warn the diocese of questionable behavior.

St. Luke staff also mandated reporters in Maryland. If child abuse is suspected or admitted, it must be reported to civil authorities in that state.

St. Luke can make recommendations, but a diocese and the client have to act on it, Gibbs said.

While the report said sending priests to treatment centers was a key part of the plan to cover up abuse in the church, on several occasions, reports from St. Luke to Pennsylvania dioceses were received, but recommendations were ignored, according to various dioceses' notes detailed in the grand jury report:

• In February 1989, a St. Luke evaluation was summarized on Harrisburg Diocese Office of Judicial Vicar letterhead, diagnosing David Luck with paraphilia, a sexual deviation. Luck admitted to fantasizing about sex with boys, and institute officials recommended Luck not be in ministry or around children.

Luck wasn’t suspended until May 1990 and was removed from the priesthood in 2005. The 57-year-old lives in York, Pennsylvania.

• In July 1996, St. Luke staffers evaluated Edward Kryston of the Pittsburgh Diocese, saying they had reason for “extreme caution” and that Kryston was at risk and needed much support. He was recommended to enter residential treatment as soon as possible, and it was “very important that he have NO contact with adolescents.”

A priest received a second letter from St. Luke a month later, that said again it would be wise for Kryston to avoid ministry focused on junior or high school students. The information was forwarded to then-Bishop Donald Wuerl.

Wuerl, now archbishop in Washington, D.C., met Aug. 31, 1996, with Kryston and appointed him as a parochial vicar at St. Albert the Great in Baldwin, Pennsylvania, effective Sept. 23, 1996. Kryston was named a pastor there three years later.

The parish was closed in 2016. Kryston, 71, still lives in the Pittsburgh area, but his present status as a priest is not listed.

• On Feb. 8, 1988, St. Luke therapists recommended that children and adolescents not have free access to the Rev. James E. Somma's home, given the sensitivity to priests’ relationships with children. Somma, who died in November 2002 at age 68 from complications of Parkinson's disease, remained in the priesthood in the Pittsburgh Diocese until at least early 2002.

In 2002, one victim reported that from 1984 until 1992, Somma sexually abused him, starting when Somma was an Air Force chaplain in Illinois and continuing on visits the teen made to Pittsburgh. During that time when Somma visited the child's family in Illinois, he traveled each time with a different boy, the grand jury report said.

The victim wrote, “When I visited Pittsburgh (at Somma’s expense) the same boys hung around the rectory with him.”

• In October 1998, the Diocese of Pittsburgh sent the Rev. Paul Spisak to St. Luke for evaluation. In a letter from the diocese to Wuerl about the evaluation, findings included Spisak's having a compulsive sexual disorder and showing “significant interest in grade school boys.”

Instead of treatment, Wuerl assigned Spisak to residence at St. Mary of Mercy in Cecil, where he was allowed to assist with some duties of the parish, and he's listed as a St. Mary pastor in 1998 on the parish website. Spisak wasn’t removed from ministry until 2003 after more sexual abuse allegations came to light.

The 74-year-old still lives in Pittsburgh.

How to fix the problem

The best way to combat sexual abuse is by educating children and parents about the signs of abuse, Gibbs said. It's not just an issue with the Catholic church; it's using the lessons learned in cases like these in everyday life.

"Early reporting is one of the most important, most significant steps that we can take as a culture," Gibbs said. "If you report early, you can prevent abuse later."

Many of the biggest changes occurred in 2002, after the issue of child abuse and a larger cover-up came to light in Boston. One big change since then was the church telling those reporting to go straight to local authorities, even if the abuse is just suspected.

"You don't have to know for sure," Gibbs said. "It's your job to flag it and let the professionals look into it. ... If you suspect it, report it because there's a child's life involved there."