Loading...
Loading...
Click here if you don’t see subscription options

Some victims of childhood sexual abuse would have one more year to file lawsuits against private or nonprofit organizations that protected their suspected abusers under a California bill that passed a key legislative committee on Aug. 21 and is now on its way to a vote before the full assembly. The National Center for Victims of Crime, which sponsored the bill, and other supporters say victims might take years to acknowledge that they were molested. The Catholic Church has vigorously lobbied against the measure. “It discriminates against victims of child sexual abuse,” Ned Dolejsi, executive director of the California Catholic Conference, said in a statement. “It discriminates against private and nonprofit organizations like the church. It continues to protect public schools and government workers from lawsuits filed by victims and it even prevents victims from suing their actual abuser.” Changes approved by the California legislature in 2009 increased the statute of limitations for abuse claims against public entities.

Comments are automatically closed two weeks after an article's initial publication. See our comments policy for more.
Chris NUNEZ
11 years 2 months ago
This brief might have had more credibility if a representative for the National Center for Victims of Crime had been interviewed and asked what the intentions of the legislation are, and why was it taken it's current shape. One can sympathize with the need to prosecute an accused perpetrator and extend the statute of limitations. But it's not really clear what's going on here.

The latest from america

Delegates hold "Mass deportation now!" signs on Day 3 of the Republican National Convention at the Fiserv Forum in Milwaukee July 17, 2024. (OSV News photo/Brian Snyder, Reuters)
Around the affluent world, new hostility, resentment and anxiety has been directed at immigrant populations that are emerging as preferred scapegoats for all manner of political and socio-economic shortcomings.
Kevin ClarkeNovember 21, 2024
“Each day is becoming more difficult, but we do not surrender,” Father Igor Boyko, 48, the rector of the Greek Catholic seminary in Lviv, told Gerard O’Connell. “To surrender means we are finished.”
Gerard O’ConnellNovember 21, 2024
Many have questioned how so many Latinos could support a candidate like DonaldTrump, who promised restrictive immigration policies. “And the answer is that, of course, Latinos are complicated people.”
J.D. Long GarcíaNovember 21, 2024
Vice President Kamala Harris delivers her concession speech for the 2024 presidential election on Nov. 6, 2024, on the campus of Howard University in Washington. (AP Photo/Stephanie Scarbrough)
Catholic voters were a crucial part of Donald J. Trump’s re-election as president. But did misogyny and a resistance to women in power cause Catholic voters to disregard the common good?
Kathleen BonnetteNovember 21, 2024