Clock is ticking for victims of childhood sexual abuse in Pa.
Victims of domestic abuse in Pennsylvania are a little safer today.
They received justice.
Now it’s time for another group of victims to get their day in court.
But the jury remains out on whether they will ever get that opportunity.
Let me try to explain. On Friday Gov. Tom Wolf signed legislation that would go a long way toward safeguarding victims of domestic abuse. And the legislation has Delaware County’s fingerprints all over it.
Not just from victims crying out for protection. But by senators and representatives doing the right thing.
A measure sponsored by state Sen. Tom Killion, R-9 of Middletown, finally made its way through the labyrinth that stands for the Pennsylvania Legislature.
Killion’s bill would change the law as it pertains to firearms and those convicted of domestic abuse. Currently those with a domestic abuse conviction or a final Protection From Abuse order filed against them have 60 days to surrender their guns. The new law changes that to 24 hours. And it also makes a very important change in state law. It mandates that those weapons be surrendered to police or a licensed firearms dealer. The old law allowed abusers to simply hand off weapons to a family member or friend. It’s not hard to see how that would be problematic. Too often an abuser’s rage boiled over, they managed to get their hands on a gun, and deadly circumstances ensued.
Will this new law stop an offender from getting a gun? Not entirely. But it will make it much more difficult, and that’s a good thing. That’s the kind of commonsense gun legislation that too often has been absent in Harrisburg.
Sen. Tom McGarrigle’s measure makes it easier for a victim of abuse to get an extension on a Protection From Abuse order.
The law, in particular when it comes to guns, marks something of a sea change for the Pennsylvania Legislature, which has been notoriously gun friendly.
This marks one of the very few instances when gun legislation was not sidetracked by the powerful gun lobby in Harrisburg, despite constant pressure to do so from groups such as Mothers Concerned about Violence and CeaseFirePa.
The measure actually sailed through the Senate last spring, but then got bogged down in the House. It was revived in the latest session and survived votes in both the House and Senate.
Now it’s on its way to becoming law after Gov. Wolf signed the measure.
Pennsylvania just got safer for victims.
But there is another group of victims that have been waiting an even longer time for justice.
That would be the victims of childhood sexual abuse.
Current Pennsylvania law mandates that victims have until age 30 to file civil lawsuits against their tormentors. Unfortunately, many childhood sex abuse experts note that it often takes victims well into adulthood – long past the statute of limitations for filing suit – to come to grips with the horrors inflicted on them as children.
And make no mistake, we are talking about horror stories.
If state residents had any doubt, they were dismissed by the most recent grand jury report that detailed, once again, a shameful pattern of childhood sexual abuse involving parish priests and the Catholic church.
The damning grand jury report details the deviant actions of more than 300 priests who preyed on at least 1,000 children in six Pennsylvania dioceses. And the truth is there likely were just as many child victims who could not be identified.
Even more horrific, this grand jury report mirrored previous ones detailing problems in Philadelphia and the Altoona-Johnstown dioceses, where church officials held to a pattern of covering up problem priests, at times simply moving them from one unsuspecting parish to another. The bottom line? There can be no doubt that church officials’ main concern was protecting the church, not the most vulnerable members of their f lock.
After each grand jury report, the drumbeat grew to change Pennsylvania law.
This time is no different. House Bill 261 would make two crucial changes: It would eliminate the statute of limitations to bring criminal charges, and expand the window for victims to sue from age 30 to age 50.
But the bill would only affect future cases.
That’s why Rep. Mark Rozzi, D-Berks, added an amendment opening a two-year window for past victims to file retroactive suits against their abusers.
It is vehemently opposed by church leaders as well as the insurance industry.
That did not stop the House from overwhelmingly passing it, a courageous stand considering the fact that every member of the House is up for re-election in a few weeks.
It now sits in the state Senate, and that’s where it faces some serious roadblocks.
Republican Senate leaders oppose the Rozzi amendment, which is one of the recommendations made by the most recent grand jury. GOP leaders believe the measure would fail a constitutional challenge, let alone the plea of church officials – including Philadelphia Archbishop Charles Chaput – that it would be a crippling financial blow to the church that could lead to more parishes and neighborhood parochial schools closing. A letter from Chaput asking the faithful to contact their representatives to oppose the retroactive window was read at all Masses in the archdiocese recently. They instead are proposing a victims compensation fund set up by the church and operated by a third party. It has been dismissed as a sham by Rozzi and victim advocates.
On Friday Pennsylvania Attorney General Josh Shapiro, the man behind that damning grand jury report on priest abuse in six Pennsylvania dioceses, stood with victims of abuse to put pressure on the state Senate.
A few hours later, Rozzi held a press conference to denounce the offer from the Senate and church leaders to set up a victim’s compensation fund.
The Senate has just a few days this week to take up this crucial legislation before the session expires.
Both Killion and McGarrigle have indicated they would support the two-year window. Another, state Sen. Daylin Leach, D-17 of Haverford and Montgomery County, actually indicated he had a change of heart after reading the most recent grand jury report.
Yeah, it’s that bad.
That ticking sound you hear is time running out for victims of childhood sexual abuse in Pennsylvania.
Victims of domestic abuse are celebrating a huge legislative victory.
Will victims of childhood sexual abuse be doing the same this week?
We’re about to find out.