Editorial voice from elsewhere
Justice is not just a result but a process, so it is no small thing to dramatically change the rules that regulate that process. Yet mounting evidence demonstrates that it is necessary to do so regarding old but more recently revealed evidence of child sexual abuse by Catholic priests and others.
The scope of the abuse has become clear through a cascade of public revelations over the last 20 years or so, beginning with the 2002 prosecution of the Rev. John J. Geoghan in Boston, subsequent detailed revelations by the Boston Globe, the resignation of Boston Cardinal Bernard Law and progressing through the blockbuster Pennsylvania statewide grand jury report in 2018.
Many of the Pennsylvania cases now are beyond the statute of limitations for criminal prosecution, and many of the survivors are older than the deadline in state law of 30 years old to file a civil lawsuit.
The state House passed a bill in April that would eliminate the statute of limitations for criminal prosecution and give victims until age 55 to file for civil damages.
That bill has not moved in the Senate, which conducted a public hearing Oct. 2 on a different approach, a constitutional amendment that would eliminate the criminal statute of limitations and create a two-year window for older victims to sue their alleged abusers or the institutions that shielded them.
The potential liability is enormous, and the impact would be all the more so because much of it for older cases probably would fall directly on the institutions rather than their insurers.
That’s a serious concern but it is mitigated by evidence that shows, in many cases, that dioceses tried to use the statutory clock to evade liability.
As Senate Judiciary Committee Chairwoman Lisa Baker of Luzerne County put it: “There is no dispute how appalling the patterns of abuse are and have been, how responsible adults conspired to cover up wrongdoing or how organizations and institutions schemed to run the clock out on the ability of victims to secure some measure of justice.”
That being the case, legislators have little choice but to ensure the ability of victims to seek redress, as several other state legislatures have done in recent years.