Pennsylvania’s Child Sex Abuse Scandal Still Is a Mess | John Baer

By John Baer
Patriot News
October 10, 2019

https://www.pennlive.com/news/2019/10/pennsylvanias-child-sex-abuse-scandal-still-is-a-mess-john-baer.html

Victims of clergy sex abuse react to the findings of the grand jury investigation announced in August 2018.

Recent news related to the Catholic Church child sex abuse scandal underscores an unending saga and a common irony: a high-purposed institution placing self-interest above the interests of those it exists to serve.

Sorta like our legislature, where self-protection is the prime directive.

Lately, that directive’s playing out in response to the child sex scandal, which continues to stun, and remains, legislatively, a mess.

For example.

A nine-month Associated Press probe found hundreds of Catholic clerics countrywide, credibly accused child abusers, never prosecuted or monitored, who ended up teaching kids, fostering kids and living next to day care centers, some committing sexual assault.

AP’s first example is former Pennsylvania priest Roger Sinclair, booted from the Greensburg Diocese in 2002 for alleged abuse of a teen boy, arrested in Oregon in 2017 for repeatedly abusing a developmentally disabled young man.

This is what happens when institutions choose coverup over responsibility.

Meanwhile, the Pittsburgh Diocese is in a legal fight over its attempt to take money from an $8 million trust fund for needy kids in order to help pay off adult claimants of sex abuse.

This suggests a fiscal shell game to protect other church assets.

(The state Office of Attorney General, which oversees charitable trusts, argues state law bars such fund shifts.)

And the Allentown Morning Call reports that during a two-year statewide investigation of child sex abuse by a grand jury, and just before its explosive findings were released last year, the Allentown Diocese moved some of its $323 million worth of real estate properties into protective trusts.

Coincidental? The diocese says so.

And perhaps it’s coincidental that the state Senate’s current intent to address the sex abuse scandal -- including survivors’ rights to sue even if statutes of limitation expired – only comes after the final deadline, September 30, for survivors to seek compensation from the Church (without litigation) has passed.

This ensures fewer litigants, if lawmakers ever allow retroactive civil suits.

If you’re new to the state or have memory issues, it was August, 2018, when a grand jury, run by Attorney General Josh Shapiro, identified 301 predator priests, 1,000 victims and a systematic coverup by the Church.

At the time, it urged ending the criminal statute of limitations for sexually abusing children and called for a two-year window during which older survivors exceeding the civil statutes of limitation could sue for damages.

A year and two months later, shamefully, that hasn’t happened.

The House moved legislation. The Senate sat on its hands.

(I’d remind you this effort applies to all institutions -- schools, clubs, organizations -- not just the Church.)

“The most disappointing part of this past year has been the lack of action by Senate Republican leadership,” Shapiro tells me, “Grand jury recommendations are constitutional. They are just. And any attempt to stop this progress is a slap in the face of survivors.”

There’s disagreement over the constitutionality of a window for civil suits.

Senate leaders say a window requires amending the constitution, a process that takes years. Shapiro says the U.S. Supreme Court and several courts in other states have upheld such windows. So, the clock ticks. And survivors wait.

Sen. Lisa Baker (R-Luzerne), who chairs the Senate Judiciary Committee, says her goal is to get legislation “that meets the test of justice and the test of constitutionality” through the committee for a full Senate vote before year’s end.

She isn’t sure what legislation.

I’m told Senate President Joe Scarnati, who last year shut down efforts to pass anything, supports amending the constitution. This, at least, is something, if not the right thing. But why would we ever expect the right thing?

Just as likely, in my view, is another Senate flop.

Democrats push for a two-year window now, plus elimination of criminal and civil statutes of limitation for abuse at any age. Republicans accuse Dems of playing politics, cry “we tried,” and everybody goes home for the holidays.

I hope I’m wrong. I want to be wrong. But powerful institutions tend to find ways to protect their interests.

John Baer may be reached at baer.columnist@gmail.com