UNITED STATES
Bustle
By CAITLIN FLYNN
Netflix’s new docuseries The Keepers is arguably both the most important and the most painful TV show of 2017. It addresses myriad issues that haven’t received nearly enough attention — and one of them is the Catholic Church’s response when allegations of abuse arise. When Jean Wehner (then known as Jane Doe) came forward to accuse Father Maskell of abuse in 1992, he was working at Holy Cross parish in Baltimore. Immediately after the allegations came to light, the Archdiocese sent Maskell to the Institute of Living in Hartford, Connecticut. (The Baltimore Sun reported that Maskell denied the accusations until his death in 2001.)
As explained on The Keepers, the psychiatric hospital had a unit that specialized in treating clergy. Dr. Leslie Lothstein, the psychologist who headed up the unit, claimed on the series that he was frequently given vague reasons for why priests were sent to him for treatment. He cited one example in which he allegedly was told that a priest was suffering from depression — but the priest himself allegedly confided in Lothstein that he’d been sent to the Institute of Living because he’d had sex with a teenager. As Lothstein claimed in The Keepers, he made clear to the Archdiocese that he would only treat priests if their complete history was made available to him. “I never got another referral,” he claimed.
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