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	Speaking out in Delaware for SOL Reform Voice from the Desert [Delaware] April 12, 2007 http://voicefromthedesert.blogspot.com/2007/04/speaking-out-in-delaware-for-sol-reform.html The following testimony was given in Dover, Delaware, to the Senate Committee in Public Hearings Supporting Senate Bill 29 on March 21, 2007 (2 p.m. Legislative Hall) by Sister Maureen Paul Turlish of New Castle, Delaware (maturlishmdsnd@yahoo.com) ••• Senator Peterson, and members of the Committee: I am Sister Maureen Paul Turlish, formerly a Fine Arts chair and teacher at St. Elizabeth High School in Wilmington. I am here today, not as a paid lobbyist but as an individual, speaking for herself as a resident of Delaware and a victims' advocate who supports the full passage of Senate Bill 29. We have all become aware in the last five years, particularly in the light of the Philadelphia Grand Jury Report, of the ineffectiveness of most states' laws protecting our children. It is no different in Delaware. But I am here today to say that we can make a difference by the passage of Senate Bill 29 and even set an example for other states. Senate Bill 29 covers everyone and discriminates against no one. It is definitely not anti-catholic. It holds everyone's feet to the fire, as well it should. Having said that, however, what the ongoing sexual abuse scandal in the catholic church has pointed out, is the absolute necessity of upgrading our laws so that children can be adequately protected. Clearly, no institution can be trusted to police itself. The responsibility to protect the common good belongs to the state. The primary mission of churches, no matter the denomination, is to care spiritually for their people and protect them from harm. Leadership fails when it abandons its children in a misguided attempt to prevent "scandal." I do not believe that removing the time limits on lawsuits will put an extraordinary burden on any institution. You may hear that it is not "fair" to bring up abuses that happened 10, 20 even 40 or more years ago. But is it 'fair" that individuals who have suffered over so many years will, even now, receive no justice? In our country there should be provisions in the law for justice, especially when egregious crimes have been committed against the young, when the law itself has been circumvented by enablers who have conspired to hide crimes of such magnitude and depravity. So, let us be "fair" to them, the victims. You may also hear that it is about money. It cannot be about money when in major cities across the country hundreds of thousands of dollars are spent each year, to retain law firms and public relations firms to prevent records from becoming public and to lobby to put a kinder, gentler face on hardball legal maneuverings. It cannot be about money when additional lobbyists are hired at hundreds of dollars an hour to oppose necessary legislation. Even if it were about money, is there a price one can put on the violation of a child's soul and body? It is about the records, like those records made public in Boston and the records now being forcibly made public in California because they have successfully passed look back legislation. It is about the records when institutions declare bankruptcy on the eve of trial dates. One of the most important sections of this bill is the "look back window" for bringing forward suits involving victims who were abused as children many years ago. It will force institutions to make public the paper trail, the records of predators who were known, protected and enabled in their crimes against children, their crimes against humanity, because, make no mistake about it, such acts, such crimes are in violation of every human rights declaration and document I have ever read. In the past five years I have talked with scores of individuals who were sexually abused as children and it is heart wrenching. In fact, in this very building last year, I heard one of my former ninth grade students speak about the abuse she suffered for years at the hands of her father. Yes, abuse starts in the family but it doesn't stop there. No country, government, corporation, organization, no school and no church is immune. The reality of past childhood sexual exploitation has to be recognized, accepted and dealt with. It is no less real, no less degrading and no less harmful in long term effects than the present trafficking in women and children and the international sex trade as discussed by Archbishop Celestino Migliore, Apostolic Nuncio of the Holy See Permanent Observer Mission to the United Nations in a March 2, 2007 address to the U.N. Economic and Social Council's 51st Session on the Status of Women. This is a "Right to Life" issue. Baltimore's Cardinal Keeler described childhood sexual abuse as "murder of the soul," and it truly is. The sins, the crimes of the past cry out for justice and it is incumbent on you, our legislators, that justice be rendered. The passage of Senate Bill 29 will accomplish this. Thank you and God bless you.
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