Big Child Sex Abuse Cases Embolden Victims

By Bill White
Morning Call
January 9, 2012

http://www.mcall.com/news/local/white/mc-bill-white-child-sex-abuse-20120109,0,589888.column

The alleged child sex abuse victims of Hall of Fame baseball writer Bill Conlin weren't the only ones who came forward in the wake of the Penn State scandal.

The day one of my columns on this subject appeared, I got a phone call from a man in his 80s. He told me about his being abused when he was a young teenager — and said this was the first time he had told that story to anyone. Even his wife didn't know about it.

If the scandal at Penn State has any positive result, it will be the way in which it has helped lift the curtain of silence from the subject of child sex abuse and emboldened more victims to finally speak up about what happened to them. I suspect the Conlin accusations have had a similar effect.

Unfortunately, one thing many of these victims had in common was that they never would have the opportunity to confront their abusers in court, because Pennsylvania's statute of limitations was protecting their tormentors. Conlin's celebrity made the claims of his alleged victims newsworthy enough to warrant stories even without legal filings to back them up, but the court system ordinarily provides the only avenue to pursue the closure of publicly naming and punishing the people who prey on children.

That's why advocates for victims of child sex abuse, many of whom were victims themselves, have been pressing for House Bills 832 and 878, which respectively would repeal the statute of limitations from the point of passage forward in civil suits relating to child sex abuse and provide a one-time two-year window for victims to bring civil action in cases barred by the current law. Both grew out of the most recent Philadelphia grand jury report about sex abuse and cover-ups in the Philadelphia Archdiocese.

As I've mentioned in previous columns, these bills are stalled in the state House Judiciary Committee, where Chairman Ron Marsico, R-Dauphin, is keeping them bottled up. Among those who hope they stay that way are the Pennsylvania Catholic Conference, the organization that handles legislative action for the church and has publicly opposed extending Pennsylvania's statutes of limitations for child sex abuse.

Reasonable people can disagree on issues such as this one. What disgusts me is that these important bills can't even receive a fair airing in our Legislature. As was the case with redistricting reform legislation back in 2008 and many other times it has been proposed, HBs 832 and 878 were assigned to a committee whose chairman was willing to bury them rather than risk a public discussion and vote. It's a cowardly, undemocratic way of governing.

My passion on the subject of child sex abuse is motivated by a couple of decades of talking to victims and advocates, but if you prefer a more direct personal testimonial, here's a portion of one of the emails I received. I hope it makes you think twice about whom our laws should be protecting — and motivates you to press your own legislators to push for exhumation of these important bills.

"I grew up in a small town in central PA, and we belonged to the local Catholic church," this man wrote. "One summer in the mid 1970s, a new priest came to the parish and was promptly put in charge of the altar boys. Shortly after his arrival, he molested both me (10 at the time) and my brother (12), and I assume countless other altar boys, on several occasions. Even more disturbing, we found out that the Church knew he had a 'problem' but apparently did nothing more than ship him off to church after church.

"The priest mysteriously left soon thereafter, well before he was scheduled to move on. I have felt guilty all these years that we didn't do more — for all we know, he was simply shipped off to another parish, to molest even more children.

"And that would be bad enough, except that, as sometimes happens to children who are molested, they become perpetrators as well. My brother began molesting me soon thereafter for many months. The action of this priest and the lack of action on the part of the church helped to ruin both of our lives. It amazes me that some lawmakers feel that THEY are the ones who should be 'protected' and not the victims of their crimes.

"After many years of anger, denial, phobias, depression and stress, I have finally sought help. But l feel that the 10-year-old child who couldn't face this for over 30 years still deserves to be heard, and still deserves justice. I hope that others who read your column will contact their legislators and demand that victims have the chance to have their voices heard. They all deserve justice."

bill.white@mcall.com 610-820-6105