New wave of abuse suits could hit church like never before

[Judi Lynn]

Financial Reckoning: A wave of new laws in 15 states that allow people to make claims of sexual abuse going back decades could bring a deluge of lawsuits against the Roman Catholic Church that could surpass anything it’s seen before
By
BERNARD CONDON and JIM MUSTIAN Associated Press
December 2, 2019, 1:53 AM
14 min read

At the end of another long day trying to sign up new clients accusing the Roman Catholic Church of sexual abuse, lawyer Adam Slater gazes out the window of his high-rise Manhattan office at one of the great symbols of the church, St. Patrick’s Cathedral.

“I wonder how much that’s worth?” he muses.

Across the country, attorneys like Slater are scrambling to file a new wave of lawsuits alleging sexual abuse by clergy, thanks to rules enacted in 15 states that extend or suspend the statute of limitations to allow claims stretching back decades. Associated Press reporting found the deluge of suits could surpass anything the nation’s clergy sexual abuse crisis has seen before, with potentially more than 5,000 new cases and payouts topping $4 billion.

It’s a financial reckoning playing out in such populous Catholic strongholds as New York, California and New Jersey, among the eight states that go the furthest with “lookback windows” that allow sex abuse claims no matter how old. Never before have so many states acted in near-unison to lift the restrictions that once shut people out if they didn’t bring claims of childhood sex abuse by a certain age, often their early 20s.

That has lawyers fighting for clients with TV ads and billboards asking, “Were you abused by the church?” And Catholic dioceses, while worrying about the difficulty of defending such old claims, are considering bankruptcy, victim compensation funds and even tapping valuable real estate to stay afloat.

More:
https://abcnews.go.com/US/wireStory/wave-abuse-suits-hit-church-67428771

[TlalocW]

1. Anything that helps victims of an international crime cartel is a good thing

Just be sure to follow the money because if this is true, the CC will be hiding whatever assets it can.

TlalocW

[Kaiserguy]

2. From what I've read

sexual abuse has been happening in a lot of different religious denominations not just the Catholic Church.

[Squinch]

3. Ahh, "whataboutism" rears its ugly head. "Others molest children too!" is a pretty ridiculous

defense for priests who molest children.

And your point is, what? That this is a smearing of the Catholic Church? As a former Catholic, I can confidently say that the Catholic Church leaves skidmarks wherever it goes without any input from anyone else.

If you are worried about those other denominations, why not post an article about them?

[Kaiserguy]

4. No that is not my point

My point is that it a big problem all over America and that is not limited to any one church but to all of them. So what was your point with the comment you made at me ?

[CaptYossarian]

5. I'm even more glad about what I did back in the 90s.

My brother-in law's priest had taken 2 teenage couples to a motel near where I currently reside. As they were getting busy, Father was across the room, pleasuring himself.

When word circulated in the little town of 3000, the Church secretly sent him to Indy, 1000 miles away. After a few months, the Feds were closing in on him. That diocese then shipped him to a DC suburb, Falls Church, VA. He was also there for a few months.

My brother-in law was chuckling that they couldn't catch Father while we were at a family gathering and I decided to take action. On Monday, I drove to my Alma Mater, as it was on my way to work. I remembered where the telephone books were (for all the major cities) in the 6-story library and also remembered "All the President's Men".

I ended up writing an anonymous letter to the Washington Post (since they had 2 rookie reporters who brought down a sitting president) and within 1 month, Father was shown on the local news, in an orange jumpsuit, wondering what the hell happened.

He was sentenced to 5 years--then went to a halfway house for wayward priests in Missouri. When they found kiddie porn on his computer and he did some other infractions, he ended up serving around 25 years in all. The now 80-year old defrocked priest just got out in 2018. He's residing in a town of about 200 people and wearing an ankle bracelet.

The families of the underage teens have sued the diocese, but I don't know what they got.