UNITED STATES
The Guardian (UK)

Amanda Holpuch in New York
@holpuch
Wednesday 13 April 2016

The courthouse doors will soon close on victims of clergy sex abuse in Minnesota and Hawaii when a brief window to bring charges against the Catholic church expires.

Statute of limitations laws have made it nearly impossible for adults who were abused as children to put their claims before a court, even after revelations in 2002 about decades of widespread child sex abuse by Catholic priests.

But in May 2013, Minnesota created a three-year window for past victims of abuse to file child sex abuse lawsuits against the church and other institutions, even after the statute of limitations has closed. This was a life-changing opportunity for people like James Hlavka, who told the Guardian he has “lived hell on earth” since being abused by a priest from age 10 to 15 in…