Even more states have launched investigations into clerical abuse since the Pennsylvania report
At least 15 States have active investigations occurring
By Tara Isabella Burton, VOX
The revelations of abuse in Pennsylvania have rocked the Catholic world. Alex Wong/Getty Images
Justice is coming slowly for the victims of the Catholic clerical sex abuse crisis. Since an August Pennsylvania grand jury report identified hundreds of priests accused of molesting at least 1,000 minors over the past seven decades in that state, several other states have announced their own investigations into historical Catholic clerical child sex abuse.
The scope and scale of the Pennsylvania report were made possible by the state’s legal structures, which give the attorney general’s office a significant degree of power to conduct investigations through the grand jury system. However, each of the states below has taken steps toward centralizing the likely hundreds, if not thousands, of potential cases of clerical sex abuse that may have taken place over the past few decades.
Each state will take a different approach, due to the range of laws concerning the convening of grand juries and who has the authority to subpoena documents from Catholic dioceses. For the most part, attorneys general are trying to gather historical records from parishes and dioceses to conduct these investigations. The vast stores of private documents relating to sex abuse, compensation of victims, and transfers of offending priests were instrumental in the formation and impact of the Pennsylvania report.
Ultimately, these investigations are unlikely to result in a great many arrests or convictions. Due to changes over the past 15 years or so concerning how Catholic churches deal with abuse, most of the allegations that new investigations would yield would likely have occurred decades ago, long beyond the statute of limitations. But many victims have said that the symbolic value of bringing a phenomenon defined by silence, shame, and secrecy into the public record is necessary.
As David Gibson, the head of the Fordham University Center for Religion and Culture, told Vox in August, “This whole scandal demonstrates the power of storytelling and the importance of storytelling and giving shape and weight to all these accusations.” But procedural obstacles and differences in policy from state to state may make that act of storytelling a protracted one.
Different states have announced different initiatives
State law in Pennsylvania allows the attorney general to call a grand jury to investigate incidents in which crimes are suspected but no formal charges have been brought. Often, the grand jury comes into place when investigating large-scale corruption or organized crime, although it has also previously been used in large-scale instances of sexual abuse.
In 2011, for example, the Pennsylvania grand jury produced a report accusing former Penn State football coach Jerry Sandusky of sexually molesting eight young boys over a decade and a half. Sandusky was arrested that year, and he was ultimately found guilty of sexual abuse and sentenced to 30 to 60 years in prison.
Matt Haverstick, an attorney who represents two of the dioceses named in the Pennsylvania report, notes that not all states are like Pennsylvania, which has the ability to launch massive investigations like this one focusing on clerical sex abuse of minors and adults, which took two years to complete. “If there was no easy mechanism set up to allow for a statewide investigation, you’d either have to set one up legislatively or get agreement at the local level — usually district attorneys — to engage in individual investigations that would collectively be amalgamated in one finding,” he says.
Haverstick argued that the obstacles to a cohesive investigation in that case would be both political — people might try to use the investigation to further political agendas — and ministerial. “It’s easy to organize a statewide report if you have one body,” he said.
Here are the states, plus Washington, DC, that have announced investigative initiatives thus far:
Missouri: The first state to announce an investigation back in August. Attorney General Josh Hawley is working with the cooperation of the Archdiocese of St. Louis, which requested the probe, to investigate clerical records spanning decades. Missouri’s four other archdioceses are not yet under investigation, although Hawley has already asked them to hand over all available records.
The cooperation of various dioceses is vital to the investigation because in Missouri, the attorney general does not have the power to subpoena documents beyond those voluntarily provided by the church, or to convene a grand jury. (Individual district attorneys, however, still have the power of subpoena.)
New York: Attorney General Barbara Underwood has subpoenaed each of the state’s eight dioceses for records pertaining to child sex abuse. Her office has also set up a hotline for victims or witnesses of clerical child sex abuse to report incidents directly. Because of state laws, Underwood’s office does not have the authority to unanimously call a grand jury, but rather must liaise with district attorneys at the local level.
New Jersey: Attorney General Gurbir Grewal announced the creation of a task force, as well as a hotline for abuse survivors to report their experiences directly with the state. The task force will be led by Essex County Prosecutor Robert D. Laurino and will be empowered to subpoena records from the state’s six dioceses.
The state is likely to be under a particular media microscope because the majority of the allegations against ex-Washington, DC, Archbishop Theodore McCarrick, who is accused of decades of sex abuse against both young seminarians and minors, took place there during McCarrick’s tenure as bishop of Metuchen and, later, archbishop of Newark.
Kentucky: Deputy Attorney General J. Michael Brown announced in September that he will seek permission from the state legislature to open a statewide grand jury investigation.
New Mexico: Attorney General Hector Balderas demanded that archdioceses turn over all documentation concerning child sex abuse to his office. While Balderas has subpoena power, he has not yet formally invoked it in this instance. Instead, he wrote in a public letter that he hopes the church will take the initiative to make “a full, massive disclosure.” So far, officials from the state’s two dioceses (Las Cruces and Gallup) and its single archdiocese (Santa Fe) say they plan to cooperate.
Illinois: At least seven priests with connections to Illinois were named in the Pennsylvania report, which prompted Attorney General Lisa Madigan to ask to meet with state church officials regarding the report and sex abuse more widely. In a statement, she said, “The Catholic Church has a moral obligation to provide its parishioners and the public a complete and accurate accounting of all sexually inappropriate behavior.” The Archdiocese of Chicago has agreed to meet Madigan. It is currently unclear how much, if any, information the archdiocese intends to turn over.
Nebraska: Attorney General Doug Peterson has asked (but not subpoenaed) the state’s three dioceses for their records. Likely to be particularly significant is the historically conservative Diocese of Lincoln, the only diocese in the United States that did not subscribe to the 2002 Charter for the Protection of Children and Young People. More commonly known as the “Dallas Charter,” it’s a zero-tolerance policy of reporting clerical sex abuse to legal authorities codified in the aftermath of the Boston Globe’s reporting on widespread abuse in Boston. (Lincoln finally started complying with church-wide audits in 2016, after the retirement of its notoriously conservative presiding bishop Fabian Bruskewitz.)
The diocese is currently investigating six priests for alleged abuse. Its representatives have publicly stated that it intends to comply with all legal requests.
Wyoming: Unlike in the states listed above, the investigative push in Wyoming is happening through the police system. Cheyenne police have announced that they are investigating sexual abuse allegations against retired Wyoming bishop Joseph Hart, who has been accused of sexually abusing minors in Wyoming as well as in Kansas City, where he previously served as a priest.
The Kansas City allegations first surfaced in the late 1980s and early ’90s. At that time, the Kansas City-St. Joseph Diocese did not find the allegations credible, but it did pay for counseling for one of the victims. More broadly, state police officials have asked clerical sex abuse victims to come forward.
Vermont: Attorney General TJ Donovan announced in September that the state would launch an investigation into clerical sexual abuse. The investigation will be run by a joint task force that includes Donovan’s office, the Vermont State Police, the Chittenden County State’s Attorney’s Office, and the Burlington Police Department. Donovan confirmed that the investigation would also look into alleged abuse at the Catholic nun-run St. Joseph’s Orphanage, which — according to a lengthy exposé by Buzzfeed’s Christine Kenneally — had a decades-long history of physical and emotional abuse of minors.
Maryland: In late September, Maryland Attorney General Brian E. Frosh launched an investigation into the Archdiocese of Baltimore. While Frosh’s office declined to comment — citing an internal state policy not to comment on any ongoing investigations — Baltimore Archbishop William Lori told reporters in a statement that “the archdiocese is supportive of the review and will be fully cooperative throughout the process.” It is unclear whether the investigation will expand to include the state’s other two dioceses.
Florida: Attorney General Pam Bondi announced plans in early October to launch a statewide investigation into Florida’s seven dioceses, and opened a hotline for victims to come forward. Bondi has declined to comment on exactly how many people have used the hotline, but said in a statement, “I am pleased with the response from the public so far, and the growing number of reports from victims. Based on these confidential reports, I believe the tip site is providing us the information we need to conduct a successful investigation and protect children.”
Michigan: In early October, Attorney General Bill Schuette seized records from the state’s seven dioceses, serving them all with search warrants for materials relating to clerical sex abuse, payoffs, and cover-ups. The Archdiocese of Detroit said in a statement that it “welcomes the Attorney General investigation as part of its continuing commitment to transparency and healing.”
Washington, DC: DC Attorney General Karl Racine announced that he was launching a civil investigation into whether the Archdiocese of Washington was complicit in covering up instances of clerical child sex abuse. The announcement comes just two weeks after Pope Francis accepted the resignation of former DC Archbishop Donald Wuerl, who was implicated in a number of cover-ups, including that of McCarrick, who was his predecessor in that post. Racine also announced the creation of a portal for victims to report abuse directly to the attorney general’s office.
Virginia: Attorney General Mark Herring announced in October that his office was investigating the state’s two dioceses, and he provided victims with a hotline number to come forward. Representatives from the dioceses have not yet commented on the investigation.
In addition, NBC News has reported that Arkansas authorities are investigating clerical sexual abuse in the state. Neither NBC News nor the diocese of Little Rock provided further details, although the diocese of Little Rock has independently released the names of priests it believes have been credibly accused of abuse, none of whom are still in active ministry.
At the national level, the Department of Justice has also launched a federal investigation into clerical misconduct in Pennsylvania, examining both abuse and its cover-up in at least seven dioceses. If any dioceses are found to have engaged in a cover-up over the past five years, they could be in violation of the Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations Act (RICO), a law designed to counter mafia activity, even if the crimes themselves took place beyond the statute of limitations.
Statewide accounting of historic sex abuse will take time
More and more states have announced initiatives of varying degrees to centralize and address survivors’ accounts of abuse, including many incidents that may be beyond the states’ statutes of limitations. However, differences in legal procedures between states make it difficult to know whether, and to what extent, a study on the scale of the Pennsylvania report might be replicated in other states.
The capacity of other states to launch similar grand jury investigations is, in fact, limited based on local jurisdiction. In states like Kentucky, the attorney general requires the state legislature’s approval to open an investigation. In other states, like Missouri, the ongoing investigation is only possible with the full participation of the archdiocese.
Elsewhere, attorneys general have made the case that their power to begin investigations is limited. Already, in Louisiana, Attorney General Jeff Landry has released a public statement saying he has no authority to launch an investigation there.
The disparity in policies across states, therefore, is likely to frustrate victims and advocates alike. The task of cataloging the likely thousands of child sex abuse cases — many of which are beyond the statute of limitations — is unlikely to happen anytime soon, or without the cooperation of the United States’ 198 Catholic dioceses.
Still, Haverstick notes that he does not think a statewide, centralized investigation is necessarily the best way forward when it comes to tracking sex abuse cases. “I think a fairer approach is one that is done at the more local level,” he said. “[Dioceses and archdioceses] are all individual organizations, and to treat them as one organism can work unfairness [sic] to any kind of investigation, and to the church.” Even within one state, he says, individual dioceses can have drastically different cultures.
Haverstick argued that the church — or at least some of its dioceses — is also taking the initiative when it comes to publicly contending with the scope of abuse. One of the Pennsylvania dioceses he represents, Harrisburg, has publicly named all accused priests. “I’m not sure you need a criminal and civil investigation to make the church do that. It seems like it’s doing that on its own,” he says. Certainly, in some states, such as Connecticut and Oklahoma, individual dioceses have already announced internal reviews of abuse allegations.
However, it’s apparent that not all dioceses have a history of complying fully with investigative bodies. Back in March, for example, the Diocese of Buffalo, New York, preemptively released a list of 42 priests who had been removed from their posts over sexual abuse allegations. At that time, Bishop Richard B. Malone stated that no accused priests remained in active ministry. But a leaked internal document last week put the number of the accused at 106, and it included priests who were still serving.
Victims of these often decades-old crimes thus have good reason to be wary of the church’s ability to police itself. In the aftermath of the Pennsylvania report, state hotlines have been flooded with new allegations. And given the rate of revelations, it’s likely that the cases we know about are just the tip of the iceberg.
Ex-Catholic priest, 75, gets 20 years in SC prison
for child sex abuse
by Drew Tripp
RIDGELAND, SC (WCIV) — A judge in South Carolina has sentenced a former Catholic priest to 20 years in prison for sexually molesting children.
Wayland Brown, 75, was sentenced to prison Tuesday by a circuit judge in Jasper County after pleading guilty to nine child sex abuse charges.
Brown was charged with nine counts of first degree and second degree criminal sexual conduct with a minor when state prosecutors indicted him in August 2017.
Prosecutors say Brown molested two middle-school aged children from Jasper County during the 1970s and 1980s, when Brown was a priest in Savannah.
Pope John Paul II formally laicized (defrocked) Brown in December 2004, according to the Catholic Diocese of Savannah. Brown's defrocking came while he was in prison for a separate child sex abuse conviction in the state of Maryland.
Brown had not been involved in active ministry since 1988 at the time, the Savannah diocese says.
The Diocese of Savannah paid $4.5 million in 2016 to settle a lawsuit filed against Brown over more allegations he sexually abused a 13-year-old boy in Jasper County in the late 1980s, the Island Packet reports.
More than 200 Bay Area clergy members named on Catholic sex abuse accusation list
Attorney Jeff Anderson, bottom, and Tom Emens looks toward photos of San Francisco Archbishop Salvatore Cordileone, from left, Oakland Bishop Michael Barber and San Jose Bishop Patrick McGrath
A law firm suing California bishops for the records of priests accused of sexual abuse released its own report Tuesday listing more than 200 clergy in the San Francisco Bay Area it says are accused of misconduct.
Minnesota-based Jeff Anderson & Associates compiled the list from lawsuits and public websites to publicize the breadth of the problem, said attorney Jeff Anderson. He accused church leaders of keeping quiet to protect themselves and the Roman Catholic Church, putting children at risk.
The Catholic Church is reeling from a grand jury report released in August that estimated hundreds of priests in Pennsylvania molested more than 1,000 children since the 1940s. The report accused senior church officials of systematically covering up complaints.
The report released Tuesday notes that the "vast majority of the claims" have not been proven in court. Anderson's firm first said the number of accused clergy was higher, but lowered the number because some of the accused clergy worked at more than one diocese.
Tuesday's report lists 135 clergy members accused in the Archdiocese of San Francisco, including names, photos and background information, 95 accused in the Diocese of Oakland and 33 in the Diocese of San Jose. In San Jose, that's more than double the 15 included in a report released last week by Bishop Patrick McGrath.
"San Jose has done something that is less than the full truth," Anderson said, adding that bishops overall have "made a lot of promises, but we've seen no action and very few disclosures."
Mike Brown, spokesman for the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of San Francisco, said Archbishop Salvatore J. Cordileone is conducting listening sessions. Brown said the archdiocese could release a list of names as part of a broader response in November.
"To assist the victims is the primary concern, or any victims who have not come forward. It probably would help very much to have credibly accused clergy's names," Brown said.
A spokeswoman for the Oakland diocese, Helen Osman, referred The Associated Press to a statement earlier this month in which Oakland Bishop Michael C. Barber said he would release the names of credibly accused clergy within 45 days.
Liz Sullivan, spokeswoman for the Diocese of San Jose, said it is "heart-breaking to see the list of so many who have betrayed and abused innocent children in these horrific ways," and said the diocese is reviewing the names.
Anderson said his firm also plans to sue the Vatican on Wednesday in federal court in San Francisco.
He represents two clients who say they were abused by priests who plan to allege that the Vatican failed to "adequately address child sexual abuse by its priests, leaving numerous children at risk," according to a draft of the lawsuit Anderson provided.
He filed a similar lawsuit earlier this month in Los Angeles County Superior Court alleging California bishops should also be held responsible for abusive priests. His firm released a report with the names of 307 clergy in the Archdiocese of Los Angeles it says was accused of sex abuse.
Current Cheyenne bishop investigated predecessor
for child sex abuse
by James Dearie AccountabilityFormer Cheyenne, Wyoming, Bishop Joseph Hart could soon face charges related to child sexual abuse, thanks in large part to the work of his successor, current Cheyenne Bishop Steven Biegler, The Kansas City Star reported Oct. 22.
The 87-year-old Hart, who was ordained a priest for the Kansas City-St. Joseph Diocese in 1956 and led the Cheyenne Diocese from 1978 to 2001, faces multiple accusations of child sex abuse from both his time as a diocesan priest and as a bishop. Hart denies all the allegations, but over the years, both the Kansas City-St. Joseph and Cheyenne dioceses have determined that some accusations against Hart are credible.
Biegler was consecrated as Cheyenne's bishop in June 2017. His first confrontation with his predecessor was before that, after he heard that Hart wanted to concelebrate the Mass of consecration.
"I went to visit him shortly after I arrived in Cheyenne, prior to the ordination," Biegler told The Star. "And I said that I wouldn't allow him to concelebrate because of the allegations and because Bishop [Paul] Etienne [who led the diocese between Hart and Biegler's tenures] had already put a protocol in place regarding limitations on his public ministry."
Although Hart was upset, Biegler did not stop there. Etienne had asked the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith to open an investigation into claims against Hart in 2010, but when Biegler arrived in the diocese, he was told that investigation had been stalled. However, he gained Vatican approval to open his own.
Biegler hired a private investigator to review claims against Hart that had surfaced in 2002 in Wyoming. Wyoming does not have a statute of limitations for child sex abuse, and Biegler turned the investigator's findings over to the district attorney.
The diocese's investigation concluded that two accusations against the former bishop stemming from his episcopal career in Wyoming were credible; a third victim has since come forward and been acknowledged by the diocese. The police have also reopened the case.
The Star also tells the story of Kevin Hunter, one of Hart's alleged victims in Kansas City, who cited abuse by Hart on a road trip while he was a teenager, as contributing to later troubles in life, including drug addiction. Hunter died of AIDS in 1989, but not before telling family members of the abuse.
One of Hunter's sisters told The Star that she decided to report her brother's story to the diocese after his death, when she saw Hart, by then the bishop of Cheyenne, at a party with a teenage boy from Wyoming.
The Kansas City-St. Joseph Diocese acknowledged in 2002 that it received two complaints against Hart in the late 1980s and early 1990s, at which point the bishop was sent to a treatment center for psychological evaluation, before returning to lead the Cheyenne Diocese for another eight years. According to The Star, the diocese had received another complaint before the Hunters', but did not tell the family. In 2008, the diocese settled with abuse victims for $10 million; some of the victims named Hart as their abuser.
After the Kansas City-St. Joseph Diocese revealed the accusations against Hart, the first complaint from Wyoming came forward with similar allegations. He told The Star he remembered a police detective telling him "This is a pillar of the community you're attacking. Is this really something you want to do?"
Catholic priest commits suicide amid child sex probe
after being told to 'leave town'
Pierre-Yves Fumery, 38, was found hanged in his own church, in Gien, France.
He was questioned earlier this month by police in a sexual assault probe involving a child under the age of 15.
Fumery had not been formally charged but was under investigation because of reports from the community about his behaviour, the prosecutor's office said.
Bishop Jacques Blaquart, whose diocese includes Gien, called Fumery's suicide a "moment of suffering" and a "tragic ordeal". He added: "All the priests of his generation who were his friends, his parishioners, I myself, we are broken by what has happened."
Good grief! They are broken by his suicide when they should have been broken by his child abuse. They should have been more concerned about what God feels when people who use His Name abuse little children. In all the stories of regret for abuse from Catholics, I never hear anyone the least concerned about what God thinks or feels. Fumery, as horrible as his suicide is, may not have escaped the punishment or embarrassment he deserves.
Blaquart said some members of Fumery's parish had complained about the priest's alleged "inappropriate behaviour" towards children aged 13, 14 and 15, including a girl "that he took in his arms and drove home several times".
The bishop said the nature of the claims did not require the diocese to report the priest to the authorities and he had told Fumery to "take a step back", seek counselling and leave town for a little while.
The priest took his advice and returned to Gien after a short break but had not yet resumed his duties, Blaquart said.
He is the second priest in over a month to commit suicide in similar circumstances.
The Catholic Church has been stained with sexual abuse claims worldwide since the 20th century.
The US is the country with the highest number of reported Catholic sex abuse cases, followed by Ireland.
In a statement released this year the Vatican said: "The Church must learn hard lessons from its past, and there should be accountability for both abusers and those who permitted abuse to occur."
For confidential support call the Samaritans in the UK on 116 123 or visit a local Samaritans branch.
A powerful lobby blocked changes in Pa. child sex abuse laws. Here's who and here's why.
by Candy Woodall/The York Daily Record
Survivors of child sexual abuse hug in the Pennsylvania Capitol while awaiting legislation to respond to a landmark state grand jury report on child sexual abuse in the Roman Catholic Church, Wednesday, Oct. 17, 2018 in Harrisburg, Pa. (AP Photo/Marc Levy)
Two powerful groups lined the halls of the Pennsylvania State Capitol Building on Oct. 17.
One group included people who identify as victims or survivors of Catholic priest sex abuse.
The other group represented the Catholic church and its insurance companies, which could have been on the hook for millions in reparations to such victims.
The victims and survivors argued for a bill that would let people sue the Catholic church over decades of abuses that were covered up.
The lobbyists argued that the bill was unconstitutional, and that the church could be left bankrupt, unable to help the community.
I wonder if they have 'helped' the community enough?
The victims and survivors had plenty of support: Attorney General Josh Shapiro, Gov. Tom Wolf, Republican nominee for governor Scott Wagner, the House of Representatives, victim advocates and other Democrats and Republicans who said abuse is a nonpartisan issue.
The Catholic lobbyists had plenty of money. They spent $3 million in Pennsylvania from January 2014 to June 2018, as lawmakers considered legislation that would change or extend when victims could sue their abusers. That total will grow once new expense reports are filed by an Oct. 30 deadline.
The lobbyists contend the church should not be held financially accountable for priest abuse or its cover-up. If the Catholic church is sued, secret files and private documents could be made public. And insurance companies, which have already paid millions in private settlements, might have to pay much more for the church's liability as new cases are brought forth.
Victims say it's clear that money talked in the Capitol last week because Senate President Pro Tempore Joseph Scarnati's words were too familiar to be coincidental.
When Scarnati said it would be unconstitutional to open a retroactive window for priest abuse victims and survivors to file lawsuits, he repeated the words of an insurance industry lobbyist and an attorney for the Catholic Church.
In a news release on Aug. 29, Scarnati said:
"Many survivors continue to advocate for legislation which would include a retroactive component. While I fully appreciate their passion for this issue, it does not change the unconstitutionality of the reviver in light of Pennsylvania's Remedies Clause in our constitution, which prohibits a retroactive change to civil and criminal statute of limitations."
Two weeks earlier, on Aug. 14, Matt Haverstick, a Philadelphia lawyer representing the Harrisburg diocese and Greensburg diocese, said something similar in The Legal Intelligencer:
"There are those who want to change the statute of limitations in Pennsylvania in ways that I don't think are constitutional...Also, I think we're going to learn something important...after the argument at the end of September, on how to protect these constitutional rights that have been raised."
Haverstick reiterated his point to TIME magazine on Sept. 13:
"You just can't pass a law violating the constitution."
Sam Marshall, CEO of the Insurance Federation of Pennsylvania, told TIME:
"It's not constitutional to require us, as insurers, to cover risk that we didn't know we'd have."
Who owns Scarnati and Corman?
State campaign finance records show Scarnati received more money from the Insurance Federation of Pennsylvania than any other candidate in the state, with 37 payments totaling more than $176,000 since 2004. More than $167,000 of that sum was received since 2008, with about $50,000 of it logged in 2016. The insurance industry is the fourth-largest donor base for Scarnati, who collected more than $676,000 from it in 18 years.
Senate Majority Leader Jake Corman received more than $326,000 in donations from the insurance lobby since 2006.
Insurance lobbyists have spent more than $27 million in Pennsylvania during the last 15 years, and the bulk of that money has gone to Republicans, especially Republican leaders. More than $10 million has gone to Democrats.
Scarnati received about $15,000 from Haverstick in 2016. Overall, Scarnati has received more than $1.7 million from lawyers and lobbyists since 2000.
But he has rejected claims that he always seems to side with his campaign donors. "I've been here 18 years. I've stood up to people nobody else has stood up to. I'm standing up today for victims," Scarnati said after a news conference last week.
That's when Scarnati pulled a vote on Senate Bill 261, saying it would have failed in the state House because because it allowed victims to sue their abusers, but not institutions. In short, it would have allowed people to sue the priests who abused them (if they're still alive), but would not have allowed them to sue the Catholic church for allegedly covering up the abuse.
The Pennsylvania House last month passed a bill to give victims of child sexual abuse a two-year window to sue abusers and institutions regardless of the time limits imposed by state law.
Current law requires victims to report abuse before they are 30 years old, excluding more than 2,000 priest abuse victims identified in Pennsylvania.
Victims and survivors supported the House bill, which was in line with the grand jury recommendations and removed the time limits for adult victims of child sexual abuse to file lawsuits. The measure passed overwhelmingly last month, but the Catholic church and insurance industry opposed it.
In this file photo from June 30, 2015, Senate President Pro Tempore Joe Scarnati, R-Jefferson County, speaks at a news conference after both the House and Senate passed the Republican version of the budget. Gov. Tom Wolf, a Democrat from York County, vetoed the full budget that night. (Photo: James Robinson/Pennlive.com via AP)
Last Wednesday, on the final voting day of the year, the Senate shared its counter-proposal -- SB261 -- which ultimately died without a floor vote.
That Senate bill was favored by lobbyists for the church and insurance industry, and it mirrors plans that were backed by lobbyists and passed in Georgia, Massachusetts and Utah, where a low number of lawsuits were filed amid a heavy lobbying presence.
The York Daily Record asked Senate leaders several questions:
When does the Senate expect to meet again and vote on SB261?
What is the Senate's response to people who say that Senate Republicans are being controlled by lobbyists?
What is driving Senate Republican leaders to exclude institutions in SB261?
Are senators getting pressure from lobbyists for the Catholic Conference or insurance industry?
Have Senate leaders met with lobbyists or representatives for the Catholic Conference and insurance industry? If so, when and how often?
Jennifer Kocher, spokeswoman for the Republican Caucus, said this in response: "I'm going to refer you to Senator Scarnati's press conference from Wednesday. I've included the link here."
Scarnati, during his news conference after 11 p.m. Oct. 17, said his amendment was "a winner for all, except for the trial lawyers."
He said his bill would hold the church accountable with a $250 million compensation fund paid for by the church for "horrific sins of the past."
"I also don't want any organization to be bankrupt that might result in victims not receiving compensation," Scarnati said.
The Senate leader said his hope was to find a path forward with meaningful changes for victims, but he had no immediate plans to call senators back to Harrisburg.
"Whoever is negotiating for the other side, if they want to put down a reasonable counter-proposal that I can find 26 votes for in the Senate, I'll bring the Senate back," Scarnati said.
Both Scarnati and Sen. Pat Browne, a Republican from the Lehigh Valley, said lawsuits against the Catholic church could create more victims by hurting beneficiaries that rely on church funding.
Scarnati accused the victims who stood in the Capitol Building of being politically motivated. "It is clear to me by statements by the attorney general and others that this is about elections now, that we're going to throw people out of office that didn't do what we wanted them to do," he said.
No! They need to throw out the scum that protects pedophiles and people and organizations that protect pedophiles, as well as those whose political actions are for sale and are in contempt of the people who have already suffered more than their share.
Alex Boren, the executive director at victim's research organization Child USA, said she's still hopeful statute of limitation reform will become law, though she is sure "Catholic lobbying and insurance lobbying is definitely why it didn't pass last week."
"I don't think this is dead yet. I do think it will pass. It's a matter of passing the right legislation for victims. To railroad it through is not justice for victims and not good for anyone," she said.
Though victims who lobbied senators last week disagree with Scarnati's bill, they do agree with what he said after Senate Bill 261 wasn't put up for a vote.
"The losers tonight are victims," Scarnati said.
That includes thousands of Pennsylvanians who weren't abused by Catholics. Their justice continues to rely on two powerful groups battling over who should and shouldn't be held accountable for priest abuse.
I question whether the victims can be considered a 'powerful' group. If they manage to unseat the Senators who sold their souls, and their constituents health, to the church and insurance companies, then I will consider them powerful. I certainly wish them luck.
Also, insurance companies have known since the early nineties, at least, that there was a shockingly large problem with pedophiles in the priesthood. They have no excuse to claim they couldn't have known.
And lastly, this is another disgraceful exhibition of irresponsibility and godlessness by the Catholic Church. If they had any serious relationship with God they would repent of their horrific treatment of CSA victims by pedophile priests, by Bishops who enabled them, and by the current church leadership which continues to cause the victims to suffer.
There is no real repentance in the Catholic Church, therefore, they cannot argue that bankruptcy would bring an end to 'all the good' they do. They are incapable of doing good while their house is so filthy.
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