| 2/11/2009 5:54:00 AM | Email this article • Print this article | Hearing sheds light on 'enormous' potential impact of statute of limitations bill
During a hearing on a bill that would allow civil suits involving decades old claims to be filed against the Catholic Church, Msgr. Bill Parent, the pastor of St. Peter's in Waldorf, said senators have two claims to justice to consider - one is the reparation sought by innocent victims of child sexual abuse and another is the justice sought by parishes like his that would feel the devastating financial impact of lawsuits.
"When the Catholic Church is sued, it is parishes like mine that suffer," he said to Maryland state senators in the Senate Judicial Proceedings Committee. Msgr. Parent said that no one is more outraged than Catholic priests when they find out "one of our own" has abused a child. The pastor added that even if the bill has "the best of motives" it would impair the Church's ability to help the poor.
Senate Bill 238, sponsored by Sen. Delores Kelley (D-District 10, Baltimore County), creates a two-year window during which time a person who claims he was abused as a child may file a civil suit - a suit for money damages and not a criminal suit - against the alleged abuser and his employer. Mary Ellen Russell, the Maryland Catholic Conference's executive director, said there is no cap on the amount of money people can claim from private institutions in the civil suits proposed by this legislation. Public institutions are insulated from the financial impact because Maryland has a very small window for filing lawsuits and limited damages for cases involving alleged abuse at public institutions.
A related bill, House Bill 556, was recently introduced in the Maryland House of Delegates.Jane Belford, the chancellor for the Archdiocese of Washington, said similar bills that have passed in other states targeted the Catholic Church. In Delaware, legislation passed that allowed civil suits to be filed under the "window law" and every single suit was brought against the Catholic Church, Belford said.
Russell said the Church is a target because of its diocesan structure and collective holdings. In California, after the statute of limitations was lifted for one year, financial settlements from decades-old abuse cases exceeded $1.8 billion and several dioceses were forced to file for bankruptcy, Catholic News Service reported.
Belford also said victims who wish to put their perpetrator behind bars can do so "until the day they (the perpetrators) die" because Maryland has no criminal statute of limitations. "That right is available to anyone," she said.
Vicki Polin, the founder and executive director of The Awareness Center who testified on behalf of the bill, said two percent of child abuse is committed by clergy of all faiths, and the majority occurs within the home. Polin, herself a victim of child sexual abuse at the hands of her father, said the reason the statute of limitations is not fair is because many people are not ready to face the horror of their abuse until much later in life.
Polin said she knows first hand how hard it was "to speak up against the horror we had to endure."
Al Chesley, a former NFL linebacker who was abused when he was 13 by a police officer and spoke on behalf of the bill, said he wasn't able to talk to his parents about the abuse because his dad was a police officer.
"I couldn't tell him that it was one of his friends doing this to me," he said, as his voice broke with emotion.
J. William Pitcher, an attorney representing Child Victims Voice, said, "In most cases, these folks, when attacked, are at such an age their mind can't process it ... They don't know what sex or adult love is. What we have here is a broken system."
Sen. Jamin (Jamie) Raskin (D- District 20, Montgomery County) said in order for a bill like this to pass, the proponents should not just prove the horrific nature of the abuse, but should focus on proving the psychological and empirical evidence that victims cannot come to terms with the abuse until decades after it occurred.
David Kinkopf, legal counsel for the Archdiocese of Baltimore, said nothing changes the fact that the bill is "unconstitutional" and there is a "very good theory behind the statute of limitations." Kinkopf explained this by saying private institutions would have to ask themselves, "Did you do three reference checks on that janitor" 40 years ago?
"That is going to be very hard," he said.
Neil Behan, a former Baltimore County chief of police, said someone was abused in his family and they sought criminal action against the perpetrator. Behan said he knew he could also bring civil action against the perpetrator but his family did not choose that route because, he asked, "How does money provide solace?"
Behan also said that as a former policeman he understands investigating old claims can "lead to fraud."
"How can you investigate a case that is so old? How can you really pinpoint that it really happened?" he said. Behan currently serves as a member of the Archdiocese of Baltimore's Independent Review Board.
Archbishop Edwin O'Brien, the archbishop of Baltimore, said in a column that appeared in the Catholic Review this month, "this legislation would devastate our archdiocese financially, our parishes, schools, and other valuable ministries ... The Catholic Church is the largest private provider of social services in Maryland ... the potential impact is enormous."
The Archdiocese of Washington's website includes a background paper on the issue that was printed in last week's Catholic Standard, and recommended action for Maryland residents to take. The archdiocese's online action center can be found at www.adw.org/service/default.asp .
The Archdiocese of Washington has a Child Protection Policy that it instituted more than two decades ago. The policy includes mandatory criminal background checks for all employees and volunteers who work with children, age-appropriate educational programs for children to safeguard them from abuse, and mandatory reporting of suspected abuse cases to civil authorities. The Child Protection Policy can be found at the archdiocesan website at www.adw.org .
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