A new report on what seems like an epidemic of Catholic clerical sex abuse indicates that the Catholic Church spent $10.6 million on lobbyists to block proposed legal changes that would help survivors of sexual abuse sue for damages.

According to NBC News, the $10.6 million was spent between 2011 and 2018, and was aimed at blocking bills in eight northeastern states. The data for the report was compiled from public findings in the states in which the legislation was in the works, says NBC News.
These records reportedly show the Catholic Church spent $5,322,979 in Pennsylvania, fighting to keep the state’s statute of limitations in place. Pennsylvania currently allows survivors to come forward with claims of childhood sexual abuse until age 50 in the case of criminal allegations and 30 in the case of civil allegations.

New Reports Spur Legal Reforms to Help Survivors

There has been a push to change legislation around statutes of limitation since a grand jury report showed that over 300 priests in Pennsylvania allegedly abused over 1,000 children.

As the extent of possible Catholic clerical sex abuse both in Pennsylvania and around the country has come to light, lawmakers in multiple states have attempted to make it easier for survivors to seek justice. In multiple cases, this has come in the form of widening the statute of limitations, thereby giving a survivor more time to file a lawsuit against their abuser.

These legal changes are occurring as the Catholic Church is facing more scrutiny for sexual abuse. The Los Angeles Times says that in the past, leaders of the Catholic Church were “largely left to police their own,” but now are coming under criticism by law enforcement for possibly not doing enough to prevent Catholic clerical sex abuse from happening, and even for possibly covering up cases of abuse.

Unfortunately, the new report of the Catholic Church paying lobbyists to block bills aims ed helping survivors doesn’t do much to assuage fears of a cover up.

NBC News notes that Pennsylvania Attorney General Josh Shapiro, who led the grand jury report, said that “the extensive lobbying by the Catholic Church in Pennsylvania against the reforms recommended by the Grand Jury proves what I have said along: the Church cannot  be trusted to police itself.”

Attorney General Shapiro went on to say that “[i]t’s reprehensible that the Church continues to spend significant sums of money fighting these reforms, instead of protecting and supporting the survivors of clergy sexual abuse.”

According to WHYY, the report showed a notable increase in Catholic Church lobbying in 2017 and 2018, in comparison to previous years. This concern about where the Church’s money is going was echoed by other critics, who may worry that through their donations to the Church, parishoners are unknowingly supporting the Church’s attempts to lobby against laws to protect survivors.

In response to the criticism about the lobbying, Dennis Poust, spokesman for the New York State Catholic Conference, told NBC that all of the Church’s lobbying efforts have been reported and are publicly available, per the requirements set by the Joint Commission on Public Ethics.

This article is not legal advice. It is presented
for informational purposes only.