Enough!

Anyone objectively found guilty of sexual abuse should be punished to the full extent of the law. Let's stipulate that before we move on, ok? No one's out to defend creeps --or the creeps who defend them. But just so we're clear, a few facts are in order (the following from the 2/26/06 issue of Our Sunday Visitor):

In 1998 the U.S. Dept. of Justice listed 103,600 reported cases of sexual abuse in public schools, while in the 53 years from 1950-2003 there were 10,667 reported cases of clergy sexual abuse nationwide. That's ten times as many in a single year as instances of clerical abuse in more than half a century.

Why, then, all across the country, is the Church being singled out for what amount to ex post facto laws eliminating statutes of limitations for child abuse allegations against clergy --only? Not school teachers. Not anyone else. The fearless Chaput the Great is taking on this difficult but important topic --and God bless him, because his enemies are trying to smear him as a coddler of dirty old men. Here's how it works, according to the good bishop:

Once the public is suitably sensitized by news media in a target area, pressure on lawmakers grows to provide “justice” for those victims whose claims have expired due to statutes of limitations. Some victims may say they were too frightened to come forward until now. Others may say they were so traumatized that they couldn’t remember their abuse until recently. Typically, attorneys will then argue that the only way their clients will get closure and peace is by litigating their expired cases. It’s an effective, appealing argument, and no one can dispute the real suffering that goes with the experience of abuse.

But:

Any revision to civil statutes of limitations must be comprehensive, fair, and equally applied. This almost never happens. The data clearly show that the sexual abuse of minors is not a disproportionately Catholic problem. In fact, some of the worst adult sexual misconduct with minors occurs in public institutions, particularly public schools. But in most states, those schools enjoy some form of governmental immunity. In other words, it’s far easier to sue a private institution, such as a Catholic diocese, than it is to sue a public-school district. It’s also a lot more lucrative since, even if governmental immunity were waived, public schools and institutions usually enjoy the added protection of low caps on damages (in Colorado, $150,000). For exactly the same sexual abuse in a public school and a Catholic parish, the difference in financial exposure is millions of dollars.

In other words, your parish and your Catholic school can be looted by trial lawyers for an allegation made against a priest who went to glory 50 years ago. But good luck trying to get the pedophile in your local public school even fired. RTWT in First Things for a thorough laying out of the injustices involved here. Once again, "the children" we use to justify everything turn out not to have much to do with it.