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	Bills Would Halt Time Limits for Sex Charges House Measures Seek to Let Long-Ago Victims File Abuse Claims, Suits By Jim Lewis The Patriot-News April 25, 2006 http://www.pennlive.com/news/patriotnews/index.ssf? /base/news/1145957027113500.xml&coll=1 Brian Guarino said he was a 10-year-old altar boy at his Roman Catholic Church when the priest took him to dinner after a Mass, fed him a little scotch, drove him to a wooded spot at a Westmoreland County seminary and forced him to have oral sex. The priest forced him into sex almost weekly for about two years in the woods behind the Greensburg church and in the sacristy, sometimes keeping him after class at the diocese's private school, Guarino said. The clergyman told him, "This is what God wants," said Guarino, now 42, and he said he believed him. "When I was little, I saw the priest as God on Earth," Guarino said. As the number of encounters increased, so did Guarino's self-loathing. "I would say to myself, 'I'm bad -- I'm dirty,'" he said. "I would pray every night to God that I would die, for him to take me. I felt like my soul was dead." Guarino didn't tell anyone. "I didn't even tell my parents until early adulthood," he said. "You feel responsible. You feel that people will not believe you." When he finally decided to do something about the incidents, it was too late -- the statute of limitations had passed, and no criminal or civil charges could be filed. But there are efforts in the Legislature to relax or eliminate the statute of limitations for prosecution of long-past cases of sexual abuse against children. A bill in the House would eliminate the statute of limitations for filing criminal charges against clergymen, teachers, church elders and others for sexual offenses against children. Currently, criminal charges can be filed up to a victim's 30th birthday. Another bill in the House would waive for a year the statute of limitations for civil lawsuits by victims against their abusers. Currently, a victim must file a civil lawsuit within two years of an alleged incident, but the bill would waive that limitation from July 1 to July 1, 2007, creating a window for lawsuits involving long-past cases. Similar attempts have failed in other states amid lobbying from churches and the insurance industry, said officials from Pennsylvania Cares, a coalition that includes prosecutors, social workers and advocates for rape victims. The coalition held a forum yesterday at the Capitol to sway legislators, featuring stories from victims, including Guarino, about abuse at the hands of clergymen. While advocates deny they are pointing fingers at any institution, the stories featured were about Catholic priests. "It's not anti-priest or anti-Catholic, but really pro-victim," said state Rep. Douglas Reichley, R-Lehigh, a sponsor of one bill. "We want to afford an opportunity for people to have a chance to have their allegations considered." But recent allegations of sexual misconduct by priests in Boston and Philadelphia have put the Catholic Church, the largest religious denomination in the nation and the midstate, in the spotlight. In Boston, documents released in a court case in 2001 showed that abusive priests were shuffled from parish to parish. In Philadelphia, a grand jury report documented assaults on children by more than 60 priests since 1967. The Harrisburg diocese received credible reports of sexual abuse of 64 children by 22 priests since 1950 and has spent $1.9 million in settlements, legal fees and counseling, the diocese said in 2004. None of the priests remained in the ministry. To Sister Maureen Paul Turlish, a nun and advocate for victims of sexual abuse by the clergy, the cases of molestation taint the reputation of good priests. "Ninety-nine percent of our priests are terrific priests and great gentlemen, and it's an embarrassment to them," Turlish said. She favors attempts to relax or eliminate statutes of limitations because "it's necessary -- if we're going to get beyond this, we have to do this," she said. Guarino, a resident of Laurel, Md., told his 15-minute story on a DVD that will be sent to every state lawmaker, according to a spokesman for Pennsylvania Cares. The video features interviews of several alleged victims of abuse by priests, including women who say they were molested when they were young. While yesterday's forum drew a number of supporters, it attracted few legislators. House members were busy in caucuses "debating a lot of very complex" legislation, Reichley explained. Guarino said he told his story to the Catholic Church, which offered to pay for a limited amount of counseling. He said he is angry that "the comfort that people feel from religion was stolen from me." He said he left the Catholic Church, but quickly added, "I believe in God." JIM LEWIS: 255-8479 or jlewis@patriot-news.com
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