PENNSYLVANIA
The Morning Call
Bill White
Here are answers to some claims about statute of limitations reform
I’ve been writing — here and here — about the way the Catholic Church is working hard to convince its faithful to exert pressure on state lawmakers over a bill that would extend statutes of limitations in cases of child sex abuse.
House Bill 1947, which easily passed the House in April, would eliminate the statute of limitations for criminal cases of child sexual abuse and extend the statute for civil cases until the victim reaches age 50, retroactively, from the present age 30.
It also would partially lift sovereign immunity protection shielding public entities such as public schools, although the retroactive provision wouldn’t apply in those cases because experts say it would be illegal.
As I watched comments unfold after I posted the link on Facebook, it occurred to me that I should address some of the concerns raised by the Philadelphia Archdiocese in the letters being read from the pulpit, sent to the parents of Catholic schoolchildren and posted in church bulletins and church websites. We may also be seeing a commercial before long, if advance publicity for a recent Catholic gathering was correct.
The blog post I linked to above included a letter from Philadelphia Archbishop Charles Chaput that lays out many of the church’s arguments. I encourage you to check it out.
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