PENNSYLVANIA
The Morning Call
By Dan Sheehan
Of The Morning Call
Legislators are eager to change a law that has allowed clergy members and others accused of sex crimes against children to escape prosecution.
The need to lengthen or abolish Pennsylvania's statute of limitations — the law that prohibits prosecution of crimes after a certain period of time — was one of the chief conclusions of a Philadelphia grand jury that investigated the handling of accused Catholic priests in the Archdiocese of Philadelphia.
The investigative panel, which released its report this week, said some priests alleged to have engaged in abuse can't be charged because too much time has gone by and they are protected by the statute.
Bishop Edward P. Cullen of the Allentown Diocese, who was the chief aide to retired Cardinal Anthony J. Bevilacqua and is at the center of the archdiocese inquiry, Friday night denied actions attributed to him in parts of the grand jury's report.
In a letter to be read at Masses throughout the five-county diocese Sunday, Cullen says, ''At no time did I ever give instructions to any subordinate that victims of sexual abuse were not to be believed.''