BishopAccountability.org
	Clergy Abuse Victims Deserve Day in Court Republican [Springfield MA] September 26, 2005 On Sept. 24, 2004, Thomas L. Dupre, leader of the 270,000 Roman Catholics in Western Massachusetts, became the first Roman Catholic bishop in the United States to be indicted on child rape charges. Just hours after the indictments were unsealed, District Attorney William M. Bennett said that he could not prosecute the case because the charges were too old. The Dupre case illuminates the need for legislation to lift the statute of limitations for sexual crimes against children so that victims can confront their abusers in court. In a scathing report released in 2003, state Attorney General Thomas F. Reilly condemned the Archdiocese of Boston for a "massive inexcusable failure" to protect children from molestation. The report followed a lengthy criminal investigation that accused the diocese of six decades of "institutional acceptance of abuse." Reilly said he, too, was hamstrung by state laws. The Reilly report also illuminates the need for legislation repealing the statute of limitations on these crimes against children. Despite these examples, the Legislature still hasn't changed the law. On Wednesday, after several adult victims of child sexual abuse testified on Beacon Hill before the Judiciary Committee in support of a bill that would change law, the committee's chairman, Sen. Robert Creedon, D-Brockton, told the State House News Service, "I was stunned when I heard about all this stuff." Here in Western Massachusetts, where at least 40 priests who have worked in Springfield diocesan parishes and schools have been accused of abuse, few people would have been stunned to hear the testimony. The bill now has 70 cosponsors and support from Reilly, Bennett and Franklin-Hampshire District Attorney Elizabeth D. Scheibel, so it is reasonable to hope that the legislation might finally pass. Critics of the bill say the current law is designed to protect a defendant's right to a fair trial. As the years pass, memories can fade and witnesses can disappear. Yet, as the legislators learned on Wednesday, it often takes decades before the victims of abuse can confront what happened to them as children. It is only fair that they then be given an opportunity to confront their abusers.
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