Highly discriminatory legislation aimed at extending the statute of limitation for filing civil lawsuits alleging childhood sexual abuse that occurred only in private and nonprofit institutions are making their way through the state legislatures in Pennsylvania and New York.

According to the Pennsylvania Catholic Conference, House Bill 1947, which has already passed the Pennsylvania House of Representatives, is now up for debate in the State Senate. This bill would retroactively nullify the statute of limitations for filling a civil lawsuit alleging childhood sexual abuse by allowing victims up to the age of 50 to file suit. Presently, victims are only permitted to file suit for abuse up to the age of 30.

However, this only applies to crimes committed at private and non-profit organizations. Public entities will retain their sovereign immunity regarding past crimes, and only allow children who are abused in the future to file claims. With 83 percent of the state’s children enrolled in public schools,and studies finding that child sex abuse occurs up to 100 times more in public schools than Catholic, it hardly seems fair that all of these children will be left without the same legal recourse.

“As proposed, a retroactive nullification of the civil statute of limitations for sexual abuse cases would open a floodgate for lawsuits against private and nonprofit organizations . . .” writes the PA Catholic Conference.

“It would force parishes, dioceses, schools, and charities to defend cases that are 20, 30, or 40 years old, long after the perpetrator and possible witnesses have died or clear evidence is gone. It could lead to the closure of parishes, schools, and ministries of today’s Catholics, who are in no way responsible for abuse that occurred decades ago.”

The problem with these old cases is that it’s nearly impossible to establish the facts in the cases. In Delaware, where a similar law was passed, the Diocese of Wilmington was forced to join a group settlement without establishing the facts of individual cases, costing the diocese $77.4 million in bankruptcy, the loss of two inner-city schools, 10 percent of its workforce and severely curtailed Catholic Charities programs.

The Diocese of Duluth, Minnesota, was ordered to pay $8.1 million to just one child abuse survivor. The dioceses in California paid out $1.2 billion for more than 1,000 claims, some involving alleged abuse as far back as the 1930s. Bankruptcy and severe debt was the only option for most dioceses in the states with retroactive windows.

“Every nonprofit organization is at risk,” says Robert J. O’Hara, Jr., executive director of the Pennsylvania Catholic Conference, “Nothing in the proposed Pennsylvania legislation would send any perpetrators to jail. Rather, it will put individual parishes and neighborhood Catholic schools in the firing line for lawsuits that are nearly impossible to defend against.”

A similarly unjust law is also making its way through the legislature in New York. Although it’s being hyped by the media as a way to ensure justice to abused children, it leaves out any mention of the fact that millions of children are excluded from the benefits.

“The law being pushed and peddled in the state capital, if you bother to read the fine print, has a much better chance of lining some lawyers’ pockets and creating newer victims than actually bringing justice to any abused person,” said the Rev. Dr. Philip Franco, a deacon and principal of St. Margaret’s Catholic school in Middle Village, New York.

Because of how the law is written, which exempts victims in public institutions, it’s as if the state is saying, “we care about victims, as long as they’re not our victims.”

“Sadly, sex abuse takes place everywhere,” Dr. Franco said. “There are dentists, lawyers, Hollywood stars, a former Speaker of the House of Representatives and many public school teachers who are guilty. Not just priests.”

Passing this law would be a direct attack on the Catholic Church, he said, which is the single biggest charitable institution in New York.

“Open the flood gates for cases that go back as many as 70 years, and the incomparable good done by the Church will be diminished and wiped out. Housing, homeless ministry, food pantries, schools and hospitals would be the victims, and the lawyers would have quite the payday. Will the politicians in Albany step up in the place of the void they cause? Unlikely.”

What right does Dr. Franco have in attacking this bill?

“I am a survivor of sexual abuse by a priest," he said. "My family and I have endured the mess of lawyers and the terrible tragedy of coming forward and dealing with the endless scars of abuse,” he said.

What has he learned from his experience? “Lawyers do not bring healing. Christ brings healing. Counseling brings healing. People to walk with you bring healing. Those things were given to me by the Church and my family. . . .”

He concludes: “Opposing this Albany bill and working for true justice for the abused are not mutually exclusive. Let us pray that ways are found to help victims all the more, without targeting one entire group of people. Let us pray for true justice."

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