Child Sex Abuse Bill Focus of Legislator’s Panel

By Patti Mengers
Daily Times
May 17, 2016

http://www.delcotimes.com/article/DC/20160517/NEWS/160519694

Victim advocate and clerical sex abuse survivor John Salveson inside his office complex in Radnor. DIGITAL FIRST MEDIA FILE PHOTO

Nearly 24 hours after priests in the Archdiocese of Philadelphia convened for meetings with Archbishop Charles Chaput, a state representative who claims he was abused as a child by a priest is hosting a panel for legislators on a bill that would expand the statute of limitations for filing lawsuits against suspected abusers and institutions that allegedly protected them.

Phil Saviano, whose efforts to help Boston Globe reporters expose suspected child sex abuse by nearly 90 priests in 2002 were included in the Academy Award-winning film, “Spotlight,” will be among five panelists featured in East Wing Senate Hearing Room 8 A at 12:30 this afternoon. Host is state Rep. Mark Rozzi of Berks County, D-126, who has identified himself as a survivor of Catholic clergy abuse.

“I think the panel is important because it puts a human face on an issue which can be discussed in legalese endlessly,” John Salveson, president and founder of the Foundation to Abolish Child Sex Abuse, said on Tuesday.

The 60-year-old Radnor resident, who claims he was abused as an adolescent by a Long Island priest but was ignored when he brought it to the attention of the Diocese of Rockville Centre bishop in 1980, has called the passage of House Bill 1947 “a major step forward in our battle to find justice for the victims of child sex abuse in Pennsylvania.”

Tuesday, Chaput called all priests who serve the approximately 2.5 million Roman Catholics in the Archdiocese of Philadelphia to attend meetings at St. Helena’s Church in Montgomery County. It was rumored he would be talking with them about House Bill 1947 proposed last month by state Rep. Ron Marsico, R-105, of Dauphin County that would expand from age 30 to 50 the statute of limitations for the filing of lawsuits against alleged abusers and institutions entrusted with the victims’ protection.

Rozzi, who has been promoting such legislation since he was elected in 2012, amended it to include past victims. The House approved it 180-15 on April 12. It now awaits consideration by the state Senate Judiciary Committee.

“The gathering today is a private one between the archbishop and the clergy. Such meetings take place on a regular basis. We wouldn’t be discussing anything about it publicly in advance,” said Ken Gavin, spokesman for the Archdiocese of Philadelphia, Tuesday afternoon.

Sister Maureen Paul Turlish, a member of Voice of the Faithful and founding member of Catholic Whistleblowers, said she learned from a credible source that the topic was the statute of limitations reform legislation.

“It will be interesting to see what happens as a result of these meetings,” said the Sister of Notre Dame de Namur who formerly taught at St. Bernadette Grade School in the Drexel Hill section of Upper Darby.

Amy Hill, spokeswoman for the Pennsylvania Catholic Conference, lobbyist for Pennsylvania’s Catholic bishops and 10 dioceses, said conference officials do not oppose the elimination of the criminal statute of limitations.

“However, the retroactive measure that was amended into the bill is blatantly unfair,” said Hill.

She maintains it is discriminatory because it allows lawsuits to be filed against private institutions for long-past actions, but continues to protect public ones, including schools and juvenile facilities.

However, state Rep. Greg Vitali, D-166, of Haverford, the only Delaware County representative who opposed House Bill 1947, maintained that it would expose public schools to civil judgments against them.

“Given the problem we are having funding education, this concerns me,” said Vitali in April.

Hill noted that Catholic Church officials also have serious financial concerns about retroactively extending the civil statute of limitations against non-profit and private institutions considering what has happened elsewhere including the Diocese of Wilmington, Del., that had to declare bankruptcy.

State Sen. Daylin Leach, D- 17, of Upper Merion, who represents Haverford and Radnor townships as well as parts of Montgomery County, is minority chairman of the judiciary committee that is chaired by State Sen. Stewart Greenleaf, R-12, of Montgomery County. Zach Hoover, Leach’s chief of staff and minority counsel for the judiciary committee, said the constitutionality of the bill’s retroactive portion is being studied.

“It is my understanding that there will be a hearing on the bill, perhaps the first week we get back in June. Part of what the hearing is about is the constitutionality issue,” Leach said on Tuesday afternoon.

In March state Attorney General Kathleen Kane released a 147-page grand jury report concluding that hundreds of children were sexually abused over at least four decades by at least 50 priests or religious leaders in the Roman Catholic Diocese of Altoona-Johnstown and that diocesan superiors concealed the abuse.

According to two Philadelphia grand jury reports issued in 2005 and 2011, there have been dozens of victims of more than 60 priests since the 1940s in the Archdiocese of Philadelphia. More than 40 of the suspected pedophiles had connections to Delaware County. Four priests and a male lay teacher named in the second grand jury investigation were able to be prosecuted because of the state criminal statute of limitations being expanded to age 50 in 2006.

“Ninety percent of people who abuse kids never end up in the courtroom because of the statute of limitations,” noted Salveson in 2008.

Civil lawsuits would expose alleged abusers who were unable to be prosecuted.