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	Help Sought for Alleged Church Abuse Victims By Martha Raffaele Associated Press, carried in Centre Daily Times April 8, 2006 http://www.centredaily.com/mld/centredaily/news/14292069.htm Harrisburg, Pa. (AP) -- Victim advocates are intensifying their efforts to prod lawmakers into passing reforms recommended last fall by a grand jury that investigated alleged sexual abuse by Catholic priests in Philadelphia. They are organizing an April 24 forum for lawmakers at the Capitol to encourage support for lifting the statute of limitations on criminal charges for sexual offenses against children -- currently a victim's 30th birthday. They also want to waive for one year the statute of limitations on civil lawsuits, which generally must be filed within two years of an alleged incident. John Salveson, a spokesman for the Philadelphia chapter of the Survival Network of Those Abused by Priests and Other Clergy, said his group is using the forum to counteract opposition by the Pennsylvania Catholic Conference, which lobbies on behalf of the state's Catholic churches. "They're only hearing one side of the story," Salveson said Friday. "One of the challenges for us is that there haven't been any hearings held on the legislation." The grand jury report released in September documented assaults on minors by more than 60 priests since 1967 and alleged that church leaders covered up the abuse. However, the panel said it could not bring criminal charges against the church or its priests, citing constraints in state law. Seventeen of the archdiocese's priests have been defrocked over sex-abuse allegations since the scandal broke four years ago, including three who were mentioned in a notice published Thursday in the archdiocese's weekly newspaper, the Catholic Standard & Times. Robert J. O'Hara Jr., executive director of the Pennsylvania Catholic Conference, said his organization has not taken a position on lifting the criminal statute of limitations, but it remains opposed to the one-year window for civil lawsuits. The conference contends that allowing alleged victims of abuse that occurred decades ago to seek civil damages would be unfair and costly to churches, O'Hara said. "Over time, evidence is lost, witnesses disappear, perpetrators could be dead. It becomes an unworkable situation," O'Hara said.
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