LANCASTER COUNTY (PA)
Lancaster Online
October 14, 2018
The LNP Editorial Board
THE ISSUE
The Pennsylvania House of Representatives voted Sept. 25 to send to the Senate an amended bill that would provide a two-year retroactive window during which victims of past child sexual abuse could seek justice in civil court. It also would end the criminal statute of limitations for child sexual abuse, and give future victims until age 50 to press civil claims. The House approved Senate Bill 261 by a vote of 173-21. The legislation was passed in the wake of a grand jury report released in August that found that 301 “predator priests” in six Pennsylvania Roman Catholic dioceses had sexually abused more than 1,000 children over seven decades. This week, the state Senate will consider Senate Bill 261.
Pope Francis accepted the resignation Friday of Cardinal Donald Wuerl, who came under repeated fire in the grand jury report for his handling of abuse allegations when he served as bishop of the Diocese of Pittsburgh.
The grand jury found that Wuerl returned the Rev. George Zirwas to ministry even after the diocese had gotten reports that Zirwas had sexually abused a number of boys.
Zirwas, it turned out, was part of a ring of priests who circulated pornographic photos of their child victims and gave their victims gold crosses to wear — so they could be readily identified by other predatory priests.
To use the cross — the symbol of Christ’s suffering — in such a depraved way is beyond belief. And there are hundreds more stories of abuse in the grand jury report that left us horrified.
You’d think that report might have spurred the Pennsylvania Senate to act with great urgency on behalf of the victims of priestly abuse.
And yet, the Senate has put the matter off. Just three session days remain before the Nov. 6 election — Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday.
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