The Crusade For Justice

I'm thinking that Connecticut's Catholic bishops would be better served by protesting this measure a tad less.

A bill in Connecticut's legislature that would remove the statute of limitations on child sexual abuse cases has sparked a fervent response from the state's Roman Catholic bishops, who released a letter to parishioners Saturday imploring them to oppose the measure.


Under current Connecticut law, sexual abuse victims have 30 years past their 18th birthday to file a lawsuit. The proposed change to the law would rescind that statute of limitations.

The proposed change to the law would put "all Church institutions, including your parish, at risk," says the letter, which was signed by Connecticut's three Roman Catholic bishops.

The letter is posted on the Web site of the Connecticut Catholic Public Affairs Conference, the public policy and advocacy office of Connecticut's Catholic bishops. It asks parishioners to contact their legislators in opposition of the bill.

I'm thinking why would any church official be actively saying "You know, we don't want these people to be able to have their case heard.  It puts us at risk."  Isn't that exactly why the statue of limitations should be removed?  Why would any religious official say "It's better for this person to not have their claim of sexual abuse by a member of our organization be heard"?

That seems bitterly self-serving and arrogant to me.  It also seems to fly in the face of the God they teach us about.  Maybe it is better to let God judge these men.  It would be better still to make sure this never happens again...and we are still a nation of laws, too.  The former does not invalidate the latter.