HARRISBURG (PA)
Penn Live
October 17, 2018
By Ivey DeJesus
The Pennsylvania Senate reconvened Wednesday for its last afternoon session of the term amid disparate reports that a bill to reform child sex crime laws would protect the Catholic Church from lawsuits.
Some advocates have urged lawmakers to approve a window to allow clergy sex abuse victims to file civil suits, even if the abuse occurred decades ago. But critics say a new proposal would bar victims from using that window to sue institutions, including the Catholic Church.
The Catholic Church figures large in the discussion over the bill. A reincarnation of previous attempts, the bill comes at the heels of a blistering grand jury report that found thousands of children had been sexually molested and raped by Catholic priests across the state.
Lobbyists from the Pennsylvania Catholic Conference and the Insurance Federation of Pennsylvania have aggressively opposed the retroactive component to the bill.
Note: This is an Abuse Tracker excerpt. Click the title to view the full text of the original article. If the original article is no longer available, see our News Archive.