PENNSYLVANIA
PennLive
By Steve Marroni | smarroni@pennlive.com
When state Attorney General Kathleen Kane released a grand jury report Tuesday, detailing four decades of sexual abuse among clergy and church leaders in the Diocese of Altoona-Johnstown, the founder of the Pennsylvania-based Foundation to Abolish Child Sex Abuse wondered why it was even news.
“This is what the Catholic church has been doing for decades,” said John Salveson, who has been an activist fighting child abuse since 1980. “I would say it’s unbelievable, but I’ve been doing this for a long time.”
Salveson said the news caused an outcry with every report and every case that made headlines over the years, from clergy abuse cases coming to light to the Jerry Sandusky case.
And every time, talk of the statute of limitations for civil cases and criminal prosecution came up with little or no change, he said.
“I don’t know what it’s going to take for Pennsylvania’s legislators to do something about this,” Salveson said. “What the hell is wrong with these people?”
But as of now, the Pennsylvania Catholic Conference backs a task force recommendation made in 2012 that no changes should be made to the state’s current statute of limitations in sexual abuse cases, which their report says is adequate.
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