Fighting for the Rights of Abuse Victims

By Matt Heckel and Jayne Ann Bugda
PALive.com
June 13, 2018

http://www.pahomepage.com/news/fighting-for-the-rights-of-abuse-victims/1235441634

The findings of a grand jury investigating allegations of sexual abuse by priests at six Catholic Dioceses in Pennsylvania is set to be released to the public later this month. On Tuesday there was a push at the state capitol to give victims more legal rights. Eyewitness News Harrisburg Reporter Matt Heckel has the story.

A bill in the house would lift time limits for when victims of sex abuse can sue their alleged abusers. On Tuesday, Victims and advocates filled the capitol to urge lawmakers to pass the bill.

"You learn to live with it. It's like a haunting." Said Teresa Lancaster.

Not a day has gone by since Teresa Lancaster graduated from "Archbishop Keough High School" in Baltimore in the 1970’s that she doesn't think about the sexual abuse she and her classmates went through.

It's a story she's now telling in the Netflix documentary "The Keepers."

"I filed suit back in 94, with another abuse survivor. And the case was thrown out on the statute of limitations technicality." Said Lancaster.

Lancaster's window to file suit had expired. A dead end she says many survivors run into.

"And it really blocks justice for a lot of people," she stressed,

: "We want to put Pennsylvania in the best position possible to protect children. And right now, Pennsylvania, our laws, put kids kind of in the middle." Said Rep. Mark Rozzi, Berks Cou

Which is why dozens of victims and advocates filled the state capitol on Tuesday, to urge lawmakers to pass House Bill 612, Removing that time limit.

"This should be a bipartisan, something that should have been done back in 2003 when the first grand jury came out in Philadelphia." Said Rep. Rozzi.

Representative Mark Rozzi is the bill's main sponsor, he himself a survivor.

“It's not getting easier as you get older. In fact, it gets worse. The mental and physical problems that we suffer do not go away." Said Rep. Rozzi.

This month, The Attorney General's office will be releasing a report of a grand jury investigation into allegations of sexual abuse and cover ups by priests in six Catholic Diocese in Pennsylvania, including Harrisburg, Erie, and Scranton.

Representative Rozzi is calling on all Roman Catholic Bishops to get behind his bill. And for Teresa, she just hopes it gives victims some piece of mind.

"Don't think you're alone. Don't think it's your fault. Because it's not." Noted Lancaster

And house bill 612 is currently in the house judiciary committee.