NEW YORK
The Worthy Adversary
March 29, 2017 Joelle Casteix
It’s true:
New York’s Archbishop Cardinal Timothy Dolan believes in Window Legislation and Statute of Limitation Reform for victims of child sexual abuse. He knows they both work to help victims heal. He’s showing us right now.
Just look at his actions, not his words.
In fact, since last fall, he’s shown that archaic Statutes of Limitations for child sexual abuse should NOT matter in pastoral care and that there is an INHERENT NEED for window legislation in Albany.
It gets better.
The requirements and success of his own compensation plan have CONTRADICTED the arguments that he and the Catholic Conference have been waging against window legislation.
Let’s start at the top.
The Independent Compensation and Reconciliation Plan (IRCP), now in its second phase, has one goal: compensate victims of sexual abuse by Archdiocesan priests, no matter when the abuse occurred.
According to the plan administrator, success will be measured by the number of victims who come forward and take advantage of the plan, accepting compensation offers by the Archdiocese.
Remember: All of these cases are barred by the civil statute of limitations.
That means these survivors don’t have a legal leg to stand on in the courts. Yet, Dolan—in his own press conference—said that pastoral care REQUIRES some kind of reconciliation and compensation.
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