Catholic Church Leaders Fight Efforts to Open Old Child Sexual Assault Cases
By Brian Mann
There is a growing effort around the country to make it easier to prosecute or bring civil lawsuits against people who sexually abuse children. Many states have already extended or eliminated the statute of limitations for reporting sex crimes against kids. But the push to punish pedophiles has met fierce opposition from Roman Catholic organizations, who say they could be unfairly targeted and their institutions could be bankrupted. How to punish adults who prey on kids? These proposed laws don't just target pedophile priests. Bridie Farrell is Roman Catholic and former top speedskater. She says it was a coach, not a priest, who sexually assaulted her when she was a teenager in Saratoga County. "It happened at his house, in his car, in his hotel room. He knew the power that he had over me," she said. Farrell, who lives in New York City now, did what a lot of children do when they’re molested; she kept silent for nearly two decades. "It was 18 years later when I was 31 that I came forward and publicly told anyone this story," she said. The problem is there’s a ticking clock. In many states, including New York, if you don’t report a rape or file a civil lawsuit quickly enough, the perpetrator cannot be brought to justice. Brad Hoylman, a Democrat in New York’s State Senate joined a growing effort in state houses across the country to make it possible to reopen these old cases. "The statute of limitations for child sexual abuse is just too short," he argued on the Senate floor. "In a word, it's broken." Time to reopen old cases? The Church says no. Hoylman fought for a law that would extend the deadline for reporting sexual assaults against kids. It would also open a one-year window, a kind of grace period, so victims who waited too long can get a second chance to sue in civil court. The measure wouldn’t just target the Roman Catholic Church. But New York’s Catholic bishops hate the idea and they spent more than $2 million lobbying to block the measure. "We just think it’s fundamentally unjust," said Dennis Poust, spokesman for the New York Catholic Conference. Poust is comfortable with extending the statute of limitations for future sexual crimes. But he doesn’t think old cases, some of them decades old, should be allowed back into court. "Cases that go back forty, fifty, or even sixty years are impossible to defend. Evidence is lost, memories fade, witnesses are dead. There’s just no way to defend against such cases," he said. Laws like this that make it easier to prosecute pedophiles and open a retroactive window for civil suits have passed in other states, including California, Hawaii, and Minnesota. Poust said in those places, the Catholic Church faced hundreds of millions of dollars in claims and settlements. "To think that that didn’t impact services, didn’t impact the ability to do good work is silly," he argued. "Plaintiffs' attorneys have been teeing these cases up for many years and are more than willing to harm today’s Catholics, who had nothing to do with abuse of the past." A moral fight, a political fight Especially in states with large Roman Catholic populations, like New Jersey, New York, and Pennsylvania, church organizations have lobbied aggressively to fight these laws. In Pennsylvania, where a similar child sexual assault measure was debated this spring, the Archdiocese of Philadelphia targeted Catholic lawmakers. They distributed fliers on Sunday morning in their parish churches. "It was under the headline, 'Just So You’re Aware,'" said Republican Nick Miccarelli in an interview with NPR. He and other Catholic lawmakers said the church tried to shame them. "This came from the archdiocese and the priests were kind of sent out to do their dirty work." Old crimes, new allegations This debate feels raw in part because it's happening within the Roman Catholic community, and some Catholic lawmakers are breaking rank with church leaders. It also feels raw because although these crimes are often decades old, they are still coming to light. In March, a Pennsylvania grand jury released a new report that described a campaign of rape and sexual violence against children by more than 50 priests in the diocese of Altoona-Johnstown. According to the document, hundreds of children were victimized over a period of decades. The crimes were allegedly covered up by church officials. Representative Frank Burns, a Democrat, represents Altoona-Johnstown and he supports extending the statute of limitations for sexual violence against children. "I’m a Roman Catholic. But when that grand jury report came out and it detailed the horrendous, horrific actions of these perpetrators, and priests, it devastated our community," he said. "It sent shock waves through our community. And there are still people trying to silence the victims now." A controversial church campaign, but an effective one A spokesperson for the Archdiocese of Philadelphia declined to be interviewed for this story. The organization sent a letter to North Country Public Radio that said there is “nothing wrong” with this kind of campaign, nothing wrong with priests sharing information about how Catholic lawmakers vote. Bridie Farrell disagrees. She said by blocking efforts to sue people who sexually abused children, the church is sheltering criminals, inside and outside the clergy. "I think that the Catholic Church should acknowledge their mistakes and address them, instead of trying to suppress it and run away from it, because it’s making the church, which is my home of faith, where I was brought up, it is making the Catholic Church look worse than it is," she said. What’s clear is these lobbying efforts by church organizations have been effective. The push to expand New York’s statute of limitations for pedophiles died earlier this month in the state legislature. A similar measure in Pennsylvania passed the state House by overwhelming margins, but stalled in the state Senate.
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