Posted on 07/30/2010 2:07:29 AM PDT by Cardhu
The head of child protection for the Catholic church in England and Wales has said the Vatican should remove the statute of limitations on prosecution of of priests for child abuse offences.
William Kilgallon, the chair of the National Catholic Safeguarding Commission (NCSC), argued that the time limit was unhelpful and failed to reflect the long-lasting effects of abuse.
He described the Vatican's recent decision to double the time period from 10 years to to 20 as "better than it was", but said he would have preferred its abolition.
He was speaking at the launch of the NCSC's annual report, which highlighted developments in the protection of children and vulnerable adults.
When asked to comment about the latest guidelines from the Vatican, Kilgallon replied: "It is good the time limit has been extended; my advice would have been to remove any limit. It is better than it was, but I would have preferred to see the removal of limits entirely."
He explained that the church in England and Wales was becoming more aware of the serious impact of abuse, and how the effects persisted with people into their adult lives. Events late in life could trigger feelings and trauma, forcing people to relive their experiences, he told the press conference.
"Very often, people who have been abused don't report things. They think they won't be believed," he said. What happens is, they see someone else has talked, and that gives them the confidence to come forward."
The panel asserted its independence from the Vatican by saying local churches were not waiting for instructions on how to deal with sexual abuse.
Sister Bertelsen said: "The Vatican can be given a hard time. I'm not saying there aren't issues that need developing, but we have been blessed to have worked on this.
(Excerpt) Read more at guardian.co.uk ...
I was unaware that the Vatican had any input on statutes anywhere. I keep trying to find the section in the Constitution that lets the clergy decide upon statutes of limitation and can't find it anywhere. I haven't figured out who gave the church the authority to punish the wrong doers either.
I’m sorry but the statute of limitations for these actions should be two years after the plaintiff turns 18. It the only fair rule. Otherwise an innocent person has no way to defend themselves. If someone makes an accusation of something that happened 25 years ago, how does one defend himself against that other than just saying “no I didn’t”. You can’t marshall up evidence for your defense after that long a period. It is clearly inequitable.
How bout making that a condition for any civil or criminal offense? Statutes of limitations exist for a reason and the primary reason is not thwart justice but to aid it.
(This only makes sense: the church can remove a man from the priesthood but the state cannot, while the state can put a man in jail and the church cannot. The two legal systems do different things, have different goals, and use different standards.)
The article is speaking to the "statute of limitations" (which isn't what it's really called) in canon law. Obviously the church has no control over the statute of limitations in criminal law.
My complaint with the media reporting on sexual abuse by priests is exactly this. The tacit implication is that the church is remiss by not “prosecuting” the offending priest. My point is who cares what “status” that catholic church assigns or doesn’t assign to the perverts. How the CDF deals with the perverts seems to me so inconsequential as to be almost comic.
What the media is covering up is the fact that the judicial systems have failed to deal with the problem. These are criminal matter that liberal prosecutors, and liberal judges want swept under the rug. Therein lies the real scandal. Whether or not the offender is priest or not, liberals REFUSE to prosecute these homosexuals because homosexuals have become a protected class. For the media, its a two-fer: bash the Catholic Church while covering up the corruption and incompetence of the “politically correct” liberal law enforcement, prosecutors, and judges.
Does anyone believe Cardinal Ratzinger knew about abuse case that the local legal system didn’t. Hardly. It’s as if the media expected the Pope to come to Ireland, Milwaukee, or Boston and burn homosexuals at the stake.
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