CALIFORNIA
DFW Catholic
Sacramento, Calif., Sep 11, 2013 / 02:01 am (CNA/EWTN News).- California Gov. Jerry Brown should veto an abuse lawsuit bill that is “flagrantly discriminatory” and “targeted at the Catholic Church,” says Bill Donohue of the Catholic League for Religious and Civil Rights.
“Going after the Catholic schools today for cases of abuse that took place decades ago, while exempting the public schools – at a time when there is a serious problem with the sexual molestation of minors in the public schools – is irrational, discriminatory and grossly unjust,” the Catholic League president said in a Sept. 10 letter to Gov. Brown.
His comments come in response to S.B. 131, a bill now headed to the governor’s desk that would lift the statute of limitations on abuse lawsuits only for private institutions, but not for public schools.
Donohue said the bill is “indefensible” because under its provisions “no one who was abused in public schools before 2009 can sue the teacher, the school, or the school district, but if someone was abused in a Catholic school when JFK was president, he can sue the teacher (if he is alive), the school, and the diocese.”
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