PENNSYLVANIA
The Morning Call
Steve Esack
Call Harrisburg Bureau
HARRISBURG — At a lectern on the House floor, far below a ceiling mural that depicts the celestial passage of time, a lawmaker spoke of the pain and suffering that never ends for him and other victims of child sex abuse.
As he has done repeatedly since his election in 2013, Rep. Mark Rozzi, D-Berks, explained how he and his childhood friends were raped by an Allentown Catholic Diocese priest while growing up in Reading. One of those friends, Rozzi said, committed suicide this Good Friday after a lifetime of therapy and drug abuse.
“He was 44,” Rozzi said of the suicide victim.
Then Rozzi urged his colleagues, silent and listening closely, to remove legal deadlines for bringing criminal charges against child abusers and that prevent child-abuse victims from suing them and perhaps their employers in civil court.
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