December 09, 2005

Dozens speak in support of Ohio's priest-abuse bill

COLUMBUS (OH)
Cleveland Plain Dealer

Friday, December 09, 2005
Julie Carr Smyth
Plain Dealer Bureau
Columbus- Robert Riestenberg said his principal at a Catholic high school in Cincinnati sexually molested him the day after his father died of cancer.

Mary Kessler said she was mourning the death of her young brother in a car accident when she was raped by the priest who had taken her grieving family under his wing.

Joelle Casteix was 15 when, bruised and bloody, she went to the office of her Catholic high school to report being abused by her choir director.

"They told me, 'Isn't it nice to be in love?' " said Casteix, 35, on a cross-country trip from California to support an Ohio bill aimed at cracking down on sexual abuse by priests and other religious leaders.

Riestenberg, Kessler, Casteix and dozens of others who say they are abuse victims testified Thursday in the second marathon hearing in a month on the proposal, sponsored by Sen. Bob Spada, Republican of North Royalton. It would mandate that church officials report known abuse, and it would open a one-year window for abuse victims to file civil lawsuits against the church.

Posted by kshaw at December 9, 2005 07:24 AM