DENVER (CO)
Washington Post
By T.R. Reid
Washington Post Staff Writer
Saturday, April 1, 2006; Page A10
DENVER -- When Colorado lawmakers proposed making it easier for victims of sexual abuse by priests to sue the Roman Catholic Church here, Denver Archbishop Charles J. Chaput fought back hard.
He charged that the effort to relax statutes of limitations reflected "a peculiar kind of anti-Catholicism" and said the goal of some lawmakers is the "dismantling and pillaging of the Catholic community."
Church representatives have testified to legislative panels here that children in public schools are just as open to sexual abuse as in a church setting and have even given state lawmakers the names of public school teachers who allegedly abused children. Chaput said in an interview with a church newspaper that diocesan officials went to a Denver newspaper with concerns about abuse by public school teachers and others in an effort to get a story published.