The Michael-In-Norfolk
March 23, 2011
http://michael-in-norfolk.blogspot.com/2011/03/germany-poised-to-increase-statute-of.html
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As noted in recent posts, the Catholic Church hierarchy has continued its anti-gay jihad and even oppose the newly adopted U.N. resolution opposing the criminalization of homosexuality and same sex relations, a problem that is wide spread in Middle Eastern nations and certainly parts of Africa and in a number of Caribbean nations. Now, perhaps in a case of Divine justice, Germany's cabinet has approved legislation that extends the statute of limitations to take legal action in civil cases for sexual abuse from three to 30 years after a victim's 21st birthday. Given the ongoing explosion of sex abuse allegations in Europe and Germany in particular, it is safe to assume that the Catholic Church and a number of "princes of the Church" may well be hit with a wave of lawsuits. Personally, I hope that such is the case and that in the course of such lawsuits, the abject moral bankruptcy of the Church hierarchy becomes unmistakable even to the worse Church apologists. Here are highlights from Duetsche Welle:
Germany's cabinet approved legislation on Wednesday that extends the statute of limitations to take legal action in civil cases from three to 30 years after a victim's 21st birthday. The legislation is expected to pass in parliament later this year.
The government was prompted to change the current limitation by last year's Catholic Church sex scandal, in which German clerics were accused of over 50 sexual abuse cases in the 1970s and '80s. Victims had little chance of pursuing such cases in court due to the three-year limit to take legal action.
People who were victims of sex crimes as children or teenagers will not be required to pay for a lawyer. In the event that their perpetrators are convicted, victims will receive detailed information on their sentencing, such as parole status.
According to the government's commissioner on sexual abuse, Christine Bergmann, her department has received over 10,000 calls and letters from victims since April 2010 and is still receiving 50 complaints daily. The former family minister is set to present a final report in May, in which she will propose material compensation for abuse victims.
With luck, the Catholic Church will deservedly become as discredited as it now is in Ireland which was once a bastion of Catholicism. And who will bear the responsibility for the Church's ruin? Benedict XVI and other high clergy who chose to protect sexual predators and monsters rather than children and youths.
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