CENTER: MISLED BY CHURCH (Hospital says it was duped into giving reports keeping priests active)

A nationally renowned psychiatric hospital that for years has treated clergy accused of sexual misconduct now says it was deceived by the Roman Catholic Church into providing reports that the church used to keep abusive priests in the ministry.  The institute may have unwittingly provided the clinical cover cited by New York Cardinal Edward Egan and other church officials as their reason for not suspending some accused priests.  A case in point is the Rev. Raymond Pcolka, whom Egan sent to the Institute of Living in 1989 after a mother accused Pcolka of molesting her son years earlier.  Egan testified that an expert of some renown at the institute concluded that there was no reason for us to hesitate to allow this person to continue his duty.  However, the institute hadn't been told Pcolka had faced another complaint sex years earlier that he molested a 7 year old girl.  Egan told lawyers during his deposition that a 1983 letter containing that accusation was missing from Pcolka's personnel file at the diocese.

(Hartford, Connecticut)