I’d really like to know what is Christian about making it harder for victims of molestation at the hands of priests to seek justice later in life.

Representatives of the Roman Catholic Church in Connecticut are fighting a proposal to extend the statute of limitations for lawsuits in child molestation cases from 30 to 40 years.

They say the church has spent millions settling lawsuits stemming from allegations of past abuse and the extension would allow for more claims that would be almost impossible to challenge because of the time that has elapsed.
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The proposal to extend the statute of limitations would apply to both civil and criminal prosecutions in child molestations cases.

I imagine that it would be cheaper to, you know, not to protect child molesters from prosecution in the first place. The Church is setting up a false dilemma between paying expenses related to molestation lawsuits and being able to continue to provide social services. The fact that the Church provides valuable social services does not exonerate its bad priests for criminal actions.

“The reason we are doing this is because many people who were victimized in this fashion are reluctant to come forward, which I think is perfectly understandable,” said state Rep. Michael P. Lawlor, D-East Haven, the committee’s co-chairman. Lawlor noted that many states are either extending their statutes of limitations for such cases or eliminating the time limits entirely.

If the Church has a reasonable fear that they will continue to face lawsuits stemming from priests sexually abusing children, this should be an opportunity for them to purge whatever bad people and bad culture has developed that allowed there to be “43 molestation cases involving 14 of its priests” in 2005. I’d hope that the Catholic Church in Connecticut stopped concerning themselves with making it harder for people to come forward and seek justice and recognized the need to care for victims who have suffered abuse.