PENNSYLVANIA
PennLive
By Ivey DeJesus | idejesus@pennlive.com
Efforts by the Catholic church to defeat a child sex crime bill ahead of a Senate hearing next week continued on Tuesday to fuel outrage among the faithful.
Parents of children who attend Catholic schools in Philadelphia were on Tuesday emailed a letter urging them to help the church defeat House Bill 1947, which would reform the statute of limitations. A similar letter was distributed last week to schools in the Harrisburg Diocese.
Gretchen Dahlkemper, whose son attends St. Mary Interparochial School in Society Hill, said she was outraged over the letter.
“We put our trust in the church to heal and to move past what was decades of cover up, really systemic cover-up of widespread abuse,” said Dahlkemper. “The email sent to parents and the effort by the Catholic Church to continue are disgusting.”
The email, which was sent out by the principal of the school and signed by Chris Mominey, secretary of Catholic education, for the Archdiocese of Philadelphia, states that the pending legislation in the Senate “has the potential to cripple our schools, catechetical programs, parishes, and charitable works that serve those in need.”
The letter contains documents similar to the ones distributed at Masses on Sunday, including a fact sheet and summary of the negative impact the bill would have on the church.
Note: This is an Abuse Tracker excerpt. Click the title to view the full text of the original article. If the original article is no longer available, see our News Archive.