BishopAccountability.org

EDITORIAL: Legislation needed to help victims of child sexual abuse

Observer-Reporter
February 06, 2021

https://observer-reporter.com/opinion/editorials/editorial-legislation-needed-to-help-victims-of-child-sexual-abuse/article_19e5a4e4-659d-11eb-8142-bf308994f6a3.html

To err is human, so the saying goes.

We’ve been told by thinkers and self-help gurus through the years that mistakes can be a source of learning, inspiration and growth, that we shouldn’t fear them, and we should courageously move on from them.

Advice along these lines has undoubtedly been ricocheting through the mind of now-departed Pennsylvania Secretary of State Kathy Boockvar in recent days. Boockvar fell on her sword and resigned last week after a mistake the State Department made that had the distinction of being both trivial and exceptional.

To put it in a nutshell, the State Department was mandated to place legal ads in Pennsylvania newspapers last year about a proposed amendment to the commonwealth’s constitution that would allow the victims of child sexual abuse an additional two years to file claims in civil court. Right now, state law dictates that no one over age 30 can press such claims. The proposed amendment has been knocking around Harrisburg since 2018, following the devastating grand jury report that exposed sexual abuse by Catholic priests that had taken place in the state over several decades.

Through some bureaucratic snafu, the State Department neglected to place the ads, even as it placed ads for other proposed constitutional amendments. That means the process of getting that question before voters in the form of a constitutional amendment will have to start afresh, meaning it will be 2023 at the earliest before voters can weigh in on it.

Both Gov. Tom Wolf and Pennsylvania Attorney General Josh Shapiro issued statements expressing their anger about the foul-up, and, to her credit, Boockvar said, “I’ve always believed that accountability and leadership must be a cornerstone of public service. While I was not aware of the administrative oversight until last week, the error occurred at our agency and I accept responsibility on behalf of the department.”

Admittedly, it’s not hard to imagine how such a blunder could have occurred, especially in light of the fact that the State Department was managing a statewide election in the midst of a once-in-a-century pandemic. The inspector general’s office has promised an investigation into how this could have happened, and recommendations will have to be made on how mistakes of this variety can be prevented in the future.

In the meantime, steps should be taken to give victims the opportunity to seek restitution outside the cumbersome process of amending the state constitution. Both Wolf and Shapiro have argued that the extension can be put in place through legislation, but the Republicans who hold majorities in both the House and Senate have countered that doing so would be unconstitutional. There is the possibility that an emergency constitutional amendment could be placed on the ballot, and that would require two-thirds of the House and Senate to go support it.

Alan Perer, a Pittsburgh attorney who is representing victims, told the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, “Maybe the time is ripe to pass it as a bill.”

 




.


Any original material on these pages is copyright © BishopAccountability.org 2004. Reproduce freely with attribution.