The advance of a Pennsylvania bill that would lift the statutes of limitation for civil lawsuits concerning child sexual abuse enters an important new phase next week.
The state Senate Judiciary Committee begins hearings at 10 a.m. Monday, June 13 in Harrisburg to examine the bill’s constitutionality under state law.
HB 1947 passed overwhelmingly in the House, 180-15, in April. The bill would allow individuals up to age 50 to sue private institutions including churches, other religious congregations, youth organizations and sports leagues retroactively for abuse that occurred years or decades ago, and for unlimited damages.
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Public institutions such as school districts could also be sued but only for cases in the future, not in the past. Settlement damages would be capped at $250,000 per plaintiff or $1 million in total related claims for state agencies, and $500,000 for local and county agencies, including school districts.
The Catholic Church in Pennsylvania, consisting of 3.2 million Catholics in eight Latin-rite dioceses and Byzantine and Ukrainian Catholic dioceses, would likely be hardest hit among private institutions.
The church’s public policy arm, the Pennsylvania Catholic Conference (PCC), has mobilized members of its Catholic Advocacy Network and urged them to contact their senators in opposition to HB 1947.
Tens of thousands of email messages and phone calls have been sent to legislators by Catholics statewide, according the conference’s director of outreach, Joelle Shea.
A PCC “action alert” invites a person to send a form message to Gov. Tom Wolf, Lt. Gov. Mike Stack and one’s state senator.
The message reads: “I strongly urge you to oppose legislation that would retroactively nullify the statute of limitations for filing a civil lawsuit alleging childhood sexual abuse, especially if it does not apply to private and public institutions equally. Pennsylvania’s 3 million Catholics cannot afford to defend their parishes and Catholic schools from expensive and unfair lawsuits that are 20, 30 or 40 years old, long after the perpetrator and possible witnesses have died or clear evidence is gone. Bankrupting the parishes, schools, and ministries of today’s Catholics that benefit our community will not provide healing nor protect children.
“Sexual abuse is a serious crime that affects every institution and community in Pennsylvania, public and private. Because of its gravity, it needs to be dealt with comprehensively and fairly. Vote no on unfair statute of limitations amendments.”
Archbishop Charles Chaput on Monday released a letter and supporting documents outlining what he called the “serious dangers” the bill poses to the church. Parish pastors along with the archbishop urged parishioners to contact their senators to oppose the retroactive provision of the bill.
One provision of it that would abolish the statutes of limitation on criminal prosecutions of child sexual abuse in the future is not opposed by the church.
The archbishop’s letter and the pastors’ push apparently have been motivating Catholics in the archdiocese to contact legislators.
Sen. Stewart Greenleaf, who represents parts of Bucks and Montgomery counties within the archdiocese, is also chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee.
A spokesman in his district office confirmed that staffers have received many calls and messages, without stating how many, both in support and in opposition to HB 1947.
“All week we’ve had a steady stream of calls from both sides,” said spokesman Aaron Zappia. “Definitely a lot of Catholics” have called since the pastors’ announcements last weekend and the archbishop’s letter was released on Monday, the spokesman said.
The bill must be approved by the Judiciary Committee before it comes up for a vote on the Senate floor.
If the bill does come up for a floor vote, amendments might alter some of its provisions. If so, the Senate and House versions of the bill would need to be reconciled by a committee of members from both chambers before the bill is sent to the governor.
Gov. Wolf has indicated he may sign such a bill, depending on its final form.
But for now, the 14 senators on the Judiciary Committee are just beginning to grapple with questions of the law’s constitutionality as response from both sides of the debate continues to heat up.
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While I agree with Archbishop Chaput and hope that this proposed law dies in the state Senate, the Church’s many problems in this area will not go away until the Church acknowledges that it has a priestly homosexual problem and it takes decisive corrective action. Just like it would be wrong to knowingly place a recovering alcoholic or drug addict into a situation where they are constantly being tempted, the same loving standard should also apply to novitiates (and also current priests) who are known to be homosexually oriented. The sad reality is that homosexuality is a sexual aberration that if acted upon leads to mortal sin. In the case of the Church this has resulted in a never ending string of priestly sexual abuse exposés that have effectively destroyed the Church’s moral trust and authority, caused untold pain and suffering to victims and their families, and resulted in a myriad of financial litigations estimated to be in the billions.
Homosexuality is a clear and present danger to the Church and it should be made an automatic disqualifier for the priesthood and all religious.
True colors of the Catholic Church are being exposed through this political process. Advocates of the bill may not be able to hang with the money and power of the church but the court of public opinion is on our side.
There is unfortunately a problem with the Archdiocese arguments. It has been reported that certain parishes have been naming politicians, even Devout Catholic politicians in their own parishes and have been publicly chastised from the pulpit and in bulletins and the political backlash could be from all this could be catastrophic for the Church in view of the IRS rules for non-profit institutions:
https://www.irs.gov/charities-non-profits/charitable-organizations/exemption-requirements-section-501-c-3-organizations
In addition to that there has always been different laws regarding public (governmental) institutions and private institutions regarding settlement amounts as public institutions represent the people who create them, namely the citizens, and consequently the idea of a people suing themselves usually means that the amount is capped to prevent damage to the very institution that was created by them whereas, a private institution is for the benefit of a select number of people who have a choice to belong support or not, and also enjoys special privileges from the government as a religious entity. The punishments for public institutional offenders is swift and severe usually resulting in long periods of incarceration whereas the private entity will fight the matter to the highest court and well they should for their own justice and do what ever is necessary to mitigate the damages both financial and otherwise for the benefit of those that belong. Another glowing problem here involves the decades long cover-ups in Penna. that even now just recently have come to light in Central Penna. where some of those responsible have even died as a result of delayed justice for the abused. The sad fact of the matter is, if the Church had not worked so hard as revealed in the grand-jury reports from secret papers that were locked away in curia files and sworn testaments from abused and others that described years of horrible sexual abuse and cover ups by hierarchy to hide the awful abuse that was known to have been taking place, they would more than likely not be facing these problems today. Sadly this is not a local problem, it is epidemic and wide spread was hidden for years not only across this Country but around the world and frankly from my point of view there is no price tag that could ever compensate the tragic human toll and destroyed lives and spiritualities of the poor souls who have been forever damaged and the Catholic Church will be forever bearing the cross of these sins either here and now or in eternity.
Why should a poor parish that I belong to pay for the sins committed 40 years ago half way across the state? Every day the Phila. Inquirer has a story of sexual misconduct done in the public schools.
Very glad to hear Catholics are responding to such an unfair bill. Now our Bishops must expose the real issue in the Church – homosexual priest… or are they just going to pretend the problem doesn’t exist. I pray for our Bishops to stop treating our Faith as a business and start concentrating on the true teachings and saving Souls.
Do not pass this bill which will bankrupt parish churches and schools
Please oppose HB 1947…unfair to religious communities…I know for a fact that a North Penn High School Math Teacher sexually assaulted male students 8 years ago and she was given a slap on the wrist…yes …may have lost her teacher license….for how long…??? Please oppose this bill and provide equal punishment for all involved.