NPR: Clinton Rape Claims Are Nasty ‘Old News,’ But Catholic Priest Abuse Charges Never Age

UNITED STATES
Newsbusters

By Tim Graham | August 25, 2016

“It’s important to say right up front that this isn’t a story about pedophile priests,” began the NPR reporter on Wednesday night….in a story with the online headline “Catholic Church Groups Fight Bills To Revive Old Sex Abuse Cases.”

Legislators have tried to pass retroactive windows to allow a so-called “grace period” for old sexual-assault allegations. Brian Mann reported New York state Sen. Brad Hoylman, a Democrat, “wanted to open a one-year window — a kind of grace period — so that [alleged] victims who’ve waited too long can get a second chance to sue in civil court. New York’s Catholic bishops hate this idea and spent more than $2 million lobbying to block the measure.”

The people who call their show All Things Considered didn’t consider this: what if a priest is unjustly accused? Does that ever happen? Just this week, a federal judge in St. Louis ruled for an accused priest named Xiu Hui Jiang in a defamation case against the Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests (SNAP). District Court judge Carol Jackson ruled that SNAP defendants conspired “to obtain plaintiff’s conviction on sexual abuse charges” and that it was because of “discriminatory animus against plaintiff based on his religion, religious vocation, race, and national origin.”

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