Supporters Of Clergy Child Sexual Abuse Lawsuit Hold Rally At State Capitol

AP/KDKA
October 24, 2018

https://pittsburgh.cbslocal.com/2018/10/24/clergy-child-sexual-abuse-lawsuit-rally-harrisburg/

Survivors of child sexual abuse and others are ramping up pressure on Pennsylvania’s Republican senators to vote on a bill to would give victims a two-year window to file lawsuits that would otherwise be outdated.

More than 100 people rallied at the state Capitol Wednesday following the Senate’s GOP majority’s decision last week to leave Harrisburg without voting on the legislation.

Several speakers focused their frustration on the Senate’s top-ranking Republican, President Pro Tempore Joe Scarnati of Jefferson County.

Existing state law gives victims until age 30 to sue over child sexual abuse.

A grand jury report issued in August alleged hundreds of Roman Catholic priests had abused children and described how church officials covered it up. The Diocese of Pittsburgh and Greensburg were both named in the report.

Scarnati says the Senate will move forward if someone “produces a counterproposal that 26 senators can support.”