Australian Head Bishop Urges the Church To Stop Reliance on the Timeliness Defense
In a remarkable turn around, The Sydney Morning Herald newspaper reported today that the head of all the Roman Catholic Bishops in Australia has publicly urged that legislation be enacted which prevents the church from using time limits to deny access to the courts by survivors of childhood sexual abuse by priests.
The full news story can be found at –
http://www.smh.com.au/national/scrap-time-limits-on-child-sex-abuse-cases-urges-head-of-bishops-20121126-2a3mm.html#ixzz2DLmb6w1A
The Archbishop of Melbourne, Australia, Denis Hart, the president of the Australian Catholic Bishops Conference, at a meeting is reported to have said that all states and territories should abolish the time limits known as the statute of limitations defense.
To quote the Archbishop – “There shouldn’t be any artificial restriction on our society’s abvility to redress such matters. The evil of sexual abuse is so serious and so awful that the only way in which the victims will come to any sense of peace is if their matter can be dealt with by the offender being brought to justice.”
And, even if such legislation is not passed, Archbishop Hart said that accused priests should waive their right to rely on the SOL defense.
Representatives of the Anglican synod in Australia and the New South Wales Attorney-General welcomed and appeared to support this initiative.
Needless to say, such a position has never been urged or discussed in the Roman Catholic Church in the United States, where part of the universal play book the church uses to defend cases of child abuse by its priests includes vigorous use of the statute of limitations defense.
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