Church open to window on old sex cases

ALBANY — The Catholic Church for the first time is saying it is open to looking at some type of provision that would allow child sex abuse victims who under current state law cannot seek justice to be able to do so.

Dennis Poust, a spokesman for the state Catholic Conference headed by Timothy Cardinal Dolan, made the comment as victims of child sex abuse and rape are waiting anxiously to see the outcome of the state Senate elections Tuesday.

Democrats have promised if they take control of the chamber to take up the Child Victims Act that would give those who were sexually abused as children more time to bring criminal and civil cases as adults.

“Whoever ends up controlling the (state) Senate, we would welcome discussions to resolve this issue in a way that is acceptable to survivors first, but also to religious and non-profit organizations who would be impacted,” Poust told the Daily News Sunday.

While the Assembly Democrats passed the bill the past two years, the Republican-controlled Senate has regularly blocked the measure.

The Catholic Church, Orthodox Jewish Groups, the Boys Scouts of America and insurance companies have opposed the Child Victims Act, mainly over a provision that would grant a one-year window to revive old cases that are timebarred under current law.

Poust said, “There are things we can look at with regards to retroactivity.”

He said a reconciliation program by the church already has allowed victims of pastor abuse to come forward and seek settlements even if by law the time frame had expired.

The church has been dealing with two major scandals in recent months — one stemming from an explosive grand jury report in Pennsylvania that found child sex abuse cases going back decades that involved more than 300 priests, including some that took place in New York — and another in Buffalo.

Gary Greenberg, a child sex abuse survivor who created a political action committee to push for the Child Victims Act, called Poust’s statement “late in the game” and a “step forward,” but also a likely acknowledgement that the church doesn’t want to be shut out of the conversation should the Democrats take over the Senate.