PENNSYLVANIA
Lancaster Online
Posted: Sunday, April 13, 2014
By SUZANNE CASSIDY | Staff Writer
The newly installed 11th bishop of the Roman Catholic Diocese of Harrisburg still had, on this day, some unpacking to do.
Somewhere in the boxes stacked in Bishop Ronald W. Gainer’s office was a lump of coal.
He’s kept it with him always, he said, and “it will be on my desk when I find it, just to remind me of my mom’s dad … who was a deep coal miner from Slovakia.”
Gainer said his family was “not at all wanting, but there were times when my dad [a bricklayer] was out of work because construction wasn’t happening, so we knew what it was to sometimes live close to the edge.” …
In an hourlong interview in his office at diocesan headquarters in Harrisburg, Gainer spoke of the effect Pope Francis is having on the church.
He also spoke about his eagerness to make the case for Catholic social teachings, and about the “disgrace” that was the church’s past handling of clerical sexual abuse cases.
He said he intends to hold town hall meetings with the diocese’s Catholics — he held more than 60 such forums in Lexington. ,,,
Statute of limitations
The Pennsylvania Catholic Conference has been criticized by child welfare advocates for opposing statute of limitation reform.
Under current law, a victim of child sexual abuse has until he’s 30 to bring civil action against his abuser.
Advocates say it takes some victims decades before they’re ready to seek justice.
“The church wants to stand with those who have been victimized in this horrible situation,” Gainer said. “And I think we have made laudatory and massive efforts to correct what had existed in the church, and secondly, to be part of the healing process for those who have been victimized.”
Within church law, he emphasized, there is no statute of limitations.
If an accusation were to be made about a priest abusing a child decades ago, “that would be examined as though it happened yesterday,” he said.
In accordance with the U.S. bishops’ Charter for the Protection of Children and Young People — often called the “Dallas Charter” — there is now a “one-strike-and-you’re-out” policy on sexual abuse, Gainer said.
Note: This is an Abuse Tracker excerpt. Click the title to view the full text of the original article. If the original article is no longer available, see our News Archive.