PENNSYLVANIA
Church Militant
by Joseph Pelletier • ChurchMilitant.com • June 7, 2016
Abp. Charles Chaput argues reform opens church to unlimited liability
PHILADELPHIA (ChurchMilitant.com) – The archbishop of Philadelphia is decrying a proposed law extending the statute of limitations in cases of sexual abuse, calling the legislation a “clear attack on the Church.”
In a letter distributed Sunday to all 219 parishes in the archdiocese of Philadelphia, Abp. Charles Chaput declared that Pennsylvania House Bill 1947, also referred to as HB 1947, “poses serious dangers” for local parishes and Catholic ministries and schools within the state as it exposes religious institutions to “unlimited liability” for clerical sex abuse currently decades past the current statute for legal action.
“All of us are rightly angered by the crime of sexual abuse,” the archbishop affirmed. “Over the past decade the Church has worked very hard to support survivors in their healing, to protect our children and to root this crime out of Church life. But HB 1947 and bills like it are destructive legislation being advanced as a good solution.”
“This is not justice,” he argues.
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