PENNSYLVANIA
Philly.com
by Maria Panaritis, Staff Writer
What happened to his son remains so seared in his memory that when he talks about it, Thomas Conaty speaks as though he is still the young father of a grade-school boy.
To understand Pa. battle over clergy sex-abuse victims law, look to Delaware
“Let me tell you briefly about Matty,” said Conaty, a 74-year-old dentist. “Matty is the guy that made things happen here.”
Matthias Conaty was 9 when he was sexually abused by a chaplain at St. Edmund’s Academy in Wilmington. Conaty’s son stayed mum about it for years. But the boy had grit, his father said, later earning two degrees, getting married, having two kids.
In 2002, he told his parents about the abuse. And what was initially despair gave way to a bedrock determination to change the law for child sex-abuse victims.
With Tom Conaty, a longtime lobbyist, leading the way, father and son helped lead an effort to let victims sue as adults. Their advocacy led Delaware to lift its civil statute of limitations in 2007 for two years. What followed was a flood of lawsuits, the bankruptcy of the Diocese of Wilmington, and, ultimately more than $100 million paid to about 150 clergy sex-abuse victims.
As a similar measure in Pennsylvania inches closer to passage, advocates on both sides of the issue point to Delaware. Supporters applaud the outcome there as just, while opponents, most notably from the Catholic Church, warn its consequences will unfairly ripple across communities here.
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