Currently, in Illinois, you have five years to file a child sex abuse claim. It is known as the statute of limitations. But an Illinois Senate bill would suspend the statute of limitations to cover incidents that happened even 40 or 50 years ago.The Catholic Church is among the organizations trying to block the law.
"We are not going to close our eyes," said Illinois Senator Terry Link.
Lake Bluff Democrat Terry Link introduced a bill in the State Senate that would give child sexual abuse victims a two year period to file legal claims, regardless of how long ago the abuse occurred.
Senator Link was asked by the Survivors Network of Those Abused By Priests to introduce the legislation in Springfield, which now has the backing of nearly two dozen senators and a powerful Roman Catholic lay organization.
"We are either talking about protecting molesters and their enablers, or we are talking about protecting children," said Sandra Stilling Seehausen, Voice of the Faithful.
Several religious, legal and social service groups are fighting the proposed law.
It is a lobbying effort led by the Catholic Church that would prefer to handle years-old cases of priest sex abuse internally with counseling, guidance and sometimes settlement payments.
According to church records, in the past three years alone, the archdiocese has paid out $40 million to victims. Most of the child sex cases are too old for lawsuits, but it could be much more expensive if old cases were decided by juries under the proposed law.
"I've heard from more bishops than I had in my lifetime," said State Senator Terry Link, (D) Lake Bluff.
Catholic Conference lobbyist Robert Gilligan is leading the church charge in Springfield.
"What we are doing down here is...we've presented sp,e proposals to the bill's sponsor saying 'we think the State of Illinois should take some of our policies and procedures and put them into place statewide,' " said Gilligan.
Therapy, counseling and in some cases financial compensation. Gilligan says he is trying to convince senators that scrapping the statute of limitations and allowing alleged victims from decades ago to file claims, would be impossible for many organizations to defend against.
"Immediately the lobbyists for the Catholic Church called me and asked me to meet with the cardinal," said Senator Link.
In a one hour meeting, Senator Link says, Cardinal George claimed the church was already doing enough and that the archdiocese could be financially ruined by a flood of lawsuits.
The cardinal declined the I-Team's invitations to be interviewed and said he was too busy to talk about it before an event this week. But in his Catholic newspaper column next week, Cardinal George makes a case for all the church is doing to help sex abuse victims, programs directed by Jan Slattery.
"The office now does extensive training in terms of prevention programs. We do the background checks; all the clearance checks on all employees and all clerics and all volunteers who work with children," said Jan Slattery, Archdiocese of Chicago.
Slattery and archdiocesan chancellor Jimmy Lago were both in Springfield the past week making the church's case. A letter from Catholic Chicago lawyers has gone out claiming the law would be unconstitutional, all of it upsetting to some.
"What would ordinary Catholics think if they knew this is the way our hierarchy is spending our money, financing lobbyists," said Seehausen.
To avoid a constitutional battle, a compromise bill appears to be in the works, one that would still give child sex abuse victims the opportunity to file old claims, but they would be decided by an out-of-court panel, not a jury.
++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
Disclaimer
No responsibility or liability shall attach itself to either myself or to the blogspot ‘Clerical Whispers’ for any or all of the articles placed here.
The placing of an article hereupon does not necessarily imply that I agree or accept the contents of the article as being necessarily factual in theology, dogma or otherwise.
Sotto Voce