BOSTON (MA)
Reuters

December 21, 2017

“What the #MeToo movement shows is the public is now willing to assign blame. They are naming names and part of that is naming the legislators who are not willing to pass these laws.”

The death on Wednesday of Roman Catholic Cardinal Bernard Law, who covered up the church’s child sex abuse scandal for decades, prompted US activists to reflect on how far their efforts have come to make sure abusers can be prosecuted and how many hurdles remain.

Thousands of people worldwide came forward to say they were child victims of priest abuse after the scandal broke in 2002. But many in the United States found that state laws protected their attackers from criminal prosecution or even civil lawsuits for crimes that were years or decades old.

That sparked a drive by advocates to reform statutes of limitations, reflecting…