Reading Eagle
March 11, 2011
http://readingeagle.com/article.aspx?id=293445
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A few years ago I got a notice in the mail accusing me of not paying a parking fee at a city garage. I knew I could prove that I paid using a credit card, so I didn't pay the additional charges claimed by the notice and waited for my hearing before a district judge.
I presented my receipt, and the district judge dismissed the complaint. I had my day in court.
Ken Millman, an attorney with Leisawitz Heller of Wyomissing who represents survivors of sexual abuse by Catholic priests, told me that the state Constitution proclaims: "All courts shall be open."
But for those who say they have been sexually abused, the state's courts are not open, at least not as open as the district court was for me.
Mark Rozzi, who last year courageously told me his story of sexual abuse he says he suffered at the hands of the Rev. Edward Graff at Holy Guardian Angels School in Hyde Park in the mid-1980s, is one of those who'd like to tell his story to a legislative committee, and then to a court. Graff died in 2002.
But Rozzi can't. His case hasn't been filed because of statutes of limitations.
Since 2006, sexual abuse victims whose cases had not expired under previous statutes have had until age 50 to bring criminal charges against their alleged assailants, and until age 30 to file civil suits.
But that's not good enough.
Psychologists, attorneys representing survivors and organizations like Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests have said each survivor of sexual abuse, regardless of whom the abuser was, needs his or her own timetable to decide to tell his or her story. Some never reach that point and live in silent pain. Some cannot endure the pain and kill themselves.
If recent events bring the breath of fresh air that Leisawitz Heller attorney Jay Abramowitch, who also represents survivors of abuse, said is beginning to blow this way, that could change.
The first was the February indictment by a Philadelphia grand jury of two priests, a former priest and a former lay teacher in the Archdiocese of Philadelphia on charges of rape, assault and other felonies. Monsignor William Lynn, archdiocesan secretary for clergy from 1992 to 2004, was charged with two counts of endangering the welfare of a child.
He is believed to be the first high-ranking diocesan official indicted under a criminal statute in the U.S. for charges related to the sexual abuse scandal that came to light in 2002, the Catholic News Service reported.
In one of the more chilling passages in a report that by any measure is difficult to read, the grand jury documented sexual abuse by priests whom church officials shielded for decades, and in the face of current assurances that archdiocese procedures now protect families, credibly accused priests have routinely been permitted to stay in ministry.
Tuesday the archdiocese placed 21 priests on administrative leave in response to the Philadelphia grand jury report.
The second occurred last week when two Philadelphia lawmakers introduced legislation that allows survivors of sexual abuse to tell their story - and seek justice.
One bill, introduced by Rep. Mike McGeehan, a Democrat, proposes abolishing the criminal and civil statutes of limitations on all future sexual attacks on children, The Philadelphia Inquirer reported.
The other, introduced by Democratic Rep. Louise Bishop, would create a two-year window of opportunity, starting in July, that would allow victims to sue no matter how long ago they were abused, the paper reported. Rep. Douglas G. Reichley, a Lehigh County Republican who represents part of Berks, is a co-sponsor of Bishop's bill.
I applaud McGeehan, Bishop and Reichley.
Six years after the first grand jury report about the sexual abuse of children by priests in the Philadelphia Archdiocese, it's time to give all victims of child sexual abuse the same unfettered, unconditional access to the courts as a person who wants to challenge a parking ticket.
John Fidler is a copy editor and writer at the Reading Eagle. He holds a master's degree in English from the University of Chicago. Contact him at 610-371-5054 or jfidler@readingeagle.com
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