PENNSYLVANIA
The Morning Call
By Dan Sheehan
Of The Morning Call
Weariness and dismay were starkly evident in Juliann Bortz's voice Thursday as she reflected on this week's state Supreme Court ruling on clergy abuse, a decision that seems to have dashed the hopes of victims seeking to bring their attackers to account despite the passage of time.
The court refused to hear an appeal of a lower court ruling that denied a bid to expand the ability to sue dioceses. Plaintiffs in the case, which targeted the Catholic Archdiocese of Philadelphia, wanted to reset the clock on the state's statute of limitations, giving victims of old abuse cases a renewed chance to pursue lawsuits.
The decision protects Pennsylvania's dioceses and other organizations from what could have been financially crippling civil judgments. That includes 10 lawsuits against the Allentown Diocese being pursued in Lehigh County.
''They're too powerful,'' said Bortz, an abuse victims advocate from Lower Macungie Township, painting the Catholic Church hierarchy as the ultimate version of an unbeatable city hall: a bureaucracy without accountability, swatting away citizens seeking redress.