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	Sister Maureen on NY Senate Bill #s5893 Voice from the Desert September 12, 2009 http://reform-network.net/?p=2345 The following letter was sent to each New York state senator on September 8, 2009, by victims’ advocate Sister Maureen Paul Turlish. * * * Legislators of the New York Senate Legislative Office Building Albany, New York 12247 Dear Senator, The sexual exploitation of children is a major epidemic in our United States. One in four girls and one in six boys are sexually abused before the age of 18 whether that abuse is committed by a parent, teacher, doctor, rabbi, priest, nun or stranger. It is a heinous and reprehensible crime against the body and soul of a child with serious and long lasting effects. Unfortunately, a percentage of individuals injured in this way cannot cope with some of these effects and take their own lives. I have met parents whose sons were sexually abused. Those parents lost their sons because their adult children could not “get over it,” could not “get on with their lives” and ended up taking their own lives. Such crimes are committed by individuals from all segments of society and they all cry out to God for justice. Cardinal William Keeler of Baltimore, Maryland described sexual abuse as “murder of the soul” and it truly is. It is fitting then, that there be no statutes of limitation, criminally or civilly, in regard to the sexual abuse of children, no matter who the perpetrators may be or what positions they may hold. Child abuse is the act of a coward bent on exercising his or her power and control over a helpless and pliant child. The egregious and heinous crime that childhood sexual is should propel those of us in public service and church ministry to do all we can to protect our children and hold those accountable who would shelter and protect the sexual predators who would harm them, no matter the cost in institutional reputation or credibility. In the state of New York it appears that leaders of the institutional Roman Catholic church and the Orthodox Jewish community are among those who believe that sexual predators should not be held accountable. Such behavior by any religious leader is outrageous and reprehensible. There are no reasons and no extenuating circumstances that could ever justify or rationalize any institution, public or private, or any religious denomination, not actively supporting their state’s attempts to bring childhood sexual abuse legislation into the 21st century. It is particularly egregious for the Catholic dioceses of New York and the New York Catholic Conference to be opposing accountability and transparency in regard to childhood sexual abuse when they promised accountability and transparency in 2002. Window legislation is not “anti” any particular group but it is very much pro-child. It forces records, if they exist and have not been destroyed, to be made available in a court of justice and hopefully into the public venue as well. Arbitrary statutes of limitation have protected sexual predators for too long. It is time they were removed. Delaware now has no statutes of limitation, criminally or civilly, in regard to childhood sexual abuse and their 2007 Child Victims Law also opened a two year window for bringing forward previously time barred cases by anyone, no matter what public, private or religious affiliation attaches. The time to protect all children is now. While New York’s Senate Bill # S5893 is a rather modest bill when compared with Delaware’s it is, nevertheless, a brave attempt to hold all institutions accountable for their actions and in particular an institution which is a formal signatory to the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child. I implore you, as a legislator in the state of New York, to be very wary about accepting claims made by members of any religious institution, their spokesmen or their representative conferences that would attempt to connect passage of Senate Bill 5893, the Child Victims bill with the closing of churches, parishes, social services or outreach programs because it simply is not true and no denomination has produced proof that would support the waves of disinformation that have been circulated in the media. Vicious opposition to the passage of any laws or the removal of any statutes of limitation regarding childhood sexual abuse of children has been the pattern employed by some leaders of the institutional Roman Catholic Church in a number of states including New York, Pennsylvania, Maryland, Ohio and Colorado. For any bishop to say that legislation like that now being proposed in New York threatens the church is as inflammatory as it is untrue. It shows that the bishops never really bought into the accountability and transparency that they promised through the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops back in 2002. The hiring of public relations firms, lobbyists and law firms to push an agenda that hurts all children in an attempt to keep secret a conspiracy that put the protection of sexual predators within a religious institution before the protection of its children, has already cost dioceses across the United States hundreds of millions of dollars. Money, however, should not trump justice as the defining issue. Would any thinking person consider giving an organization, like the W.R. Grace Company, for example, a pass for the illnesses brought on by the asbestos contamination and radiation poisoning that generated over 200,000 lawsuits against a company that knew the damage that was impacting the lives of people and their families in different parts of the country because of their many philanthropic endeavors? Of course not. To even consider such an idea is obscene and well beyond the pale, as it should be. So too, there should be no accommodation in law that gives more protection to sexual predators of children and the enablers who conspired to protect them, then to the very real victims of childhood sexual abuse. It is unconscionable for religious denominations and their leadership to protect and enable sexual predators by refusing to support changes in the laws that would hold both the perpetrators and their enablers accountable. In all good conscience, I strongly encourage you, as a member of the New York Legislature, to support criminal and civil laws that are as strong as possible in holding accountable the sexual predators of our children together with any enabling individuals or institutions who were complicit in their protection. I have spoken before the Senate and House judiciary committees in support of Delaware’s 2007 Child Victims Law which removed all statutes of limitation in regard to the sexual abuse of children as well as instituting a two year window for bringing forward previously time barred cases of childhood sexual abuse by anyone. I would be more then happy to testify in support of the Senate Bill # S5893 if this would be helpful. God bless you for all the work you do, Sister Maureen Paul Turlish Victims’ Advocate New Castle, Delaware Contact: maureenpaulturlish@yahoo.com
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