PENNSYLVANIA
Philly.com
By John Salveson
The one thing I have in common with Archbishop Charles Chaput is that I live in Philadelphia but wasn’t born here. I grew up in New York and moved here in 1978. He moved here from Denver in 2011.
I point this out because I believe the archbishop’s relative inexperience here has led him to miscalculate the nature of Philadelphia Catholics. Let me explain.
The archdiocese has launched a campaign aimed at convincing Philadelphia-area Catholics that changing the laws pertaining to the sexual abuse of children is a very bad and dangerous idea. He wants them to call their legislators and tell them not to support House Bill 1947.
The bill would remove the statute of limitations for criminal prosecution for child sexual abuse, raise the maximum age at which a child victim may file a civil suit to 50, and make it possible for more child sexual abuse victims to bring lawsuits against any Pennsylvania diocese that enabled and protected their predators.
The archdiocese’s message, promoted through meetings with clergy, articles in the archdiocesan digital publication CatholicPhilly.com, an “Action Alert” from the Pennsylvania Catholic Conference, and fliers distributed to the faithful, is ominous: The passage of H.B. 1947 could lead to bankruptcy, crippling debt, closures of parishes and schools, and erosion of services to the needy.
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