PHILADELPHIA (PA)
FindLaw
By MARCI HAMILTON
hamilton02@aol.com
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Thursday, Sep. 22, 2005
After an investigation lasting more than three years, Philadelphia District Attorney, Lynne Abraham, has released her Office's grand jury report on clergy child sex abuse in the Philadelphia archdiocese.
I was asked by District Attorney Abraham to be the constitutional law advisor to the grand jury, and willingly assisted the Philadelphia investigation. Now that the report is public, I am free to comment on its contents.
Those in Philadelphia who would like to pretend clergy abuse is not a real problem, or an ancient problem, ought to sit down and read all 671 pages of the report.
It is sobering - recounting the stories of over 60 abusing priests and more victims, and establishing, to a virtual certainty, that there are many others victims about whom we don't even now.
Not all of the abuse is decades old. The abuse is often ritualistic, always sick, and destroys both girls and boys.
Yet the report's legal conclusion will be troubling to many: According to the D.A.'s Office, there is no possibility of bringing criminal charges against the newly discovered perpetrators or the Archdiocese. Nor is there a chance of bringing charges against Cardinals Bevilacqua and Krol, or Secretary for Clergy Monsignor William J. Lynn.
That conclusion does not stem from any finding that the institution, or these men, did not engage in indictable offenses. Rather, it is simply because the statute of limitations has expired on all of the criminal charges that might, earlier, have been lodged.