WHAT ABOUT ACCOUNTABILITY AND TRANSPARENCY?

There is a need to change Maryland's inadequate childhood sexual abuse statutes as was done last year in Delaware for the protection of everyone.

It is as simple and as profound as that.

It is a glaring need, one that should be obvious to all those concerned with the welfare and protection of
children.

Maryland's archaic civil statutes have been among the most ineffective in the nation, allowing little time
for civil action in older cases.

The history of enabling in regard to known sexual predators is appalling, unconscionable and immoral.

This is especially evident in the recent history of the cover up in the Roman Catholic Church.

Although the Catholic Church has not been alone among religious denominations with problems of sexually abusive clerics, its history of covering up and protecting these offenders has been singularly scandalous.

Instead of being pro-active in supporting adequate legislation in holding offenders accountable it has used all of its power and resources in fighting tooth and nail to obstruct new legislation.

This is supported by the fact that church leadership failed to even address its sexual abuse problem until decades of cover-up were first exposed in the Archdiocese of Boston, ground zero for the Catholic Church in the United States.

Boston Superior Court Judge Constance Sweeney, an exemplary product of at least sixteen years of
catholic school education, ordered the release of all records and files on credibly accused pedophile priests in Boston early on while pastors in churches across the United States were being told not to worry
because their diocese had no such problem.

This is tragic and it speaks to the skewered value we as a society place on children, especially those
victims of childhood sexual abuse.

As members of a community of believers, the people of God -

We say we are concerned with the rights of the unborn.

We say we are concerned with the trafficking of persons.

We say we are concerned about the protection of the human rights of immigrants, legal or illegal.

But while we may take the moral high ground on these issues, many of us ignore the victims of childhood
sexual abuse who are right in front of us and instead talk about greedy lawyers, complain about how unfair
it is to hold individuals accountable for their past sins and crimes, make inflammatory statements about
the anti-catholic attitudes of anyone who would suggest accountability and the bias of just about every newspaper in the country, calling down God's eternal wrath on them from time to time.

None of this does much to address the problem.

In fact, statements made by church leadership in Maryland that HB 858 would have unfairly punished the
Catholic Church by forcing it to put millions of dollars toward litigation while hampering its ability to do charitable work is patently untrue and no documentary evidence has been produced to support such an outrageous claim.

What can be documented is the fact that the Archdiocese of Los Angeles, for example, has spent millions of dollars per year in fighting tooth and
nail against victims of childhood sexual abuse until the very last moment before the church would have been forced into a courtroom where archdiocesan records and
files would have been made public.

This is a continuing tragedy of unspeakable horrors that is not mitigated by the fact that it may have
happened ten, twenty or thirty years ago. It is an abomination which must be dealt with, but justice, like charity, begins at home.

It should have begun in earnest when all the bishops of the United States received the Doyle, Peterson,
Mouton Report in 1985.

It should have begun in earnest in 2002 when our bishops said it would.

It should have begun in earnest when Pope John Paul II said that there is no place in the priesthood for
those who would abuse a child.

We are all still waiting for that promised accountability and transparency even while then United
States Conference of Catholic Bishops president Wilton Gregory was telling us that, "The terrible history recorded here today is history."

No, it is not behind us as Bishop Gregory would have wished because church records, forced into the public
venue by the courts, have brought that reality home to us with a vengeance.

One can only blanch at what may lie among the thousands of documents that too many dioceses around
the country refuse to release, but what has already been made public appears to document decisions that
may be more criminal in nature then the "mistakes" and "poor decisions" that some official have claimed.

Because their enablers did not put our children first, they did not have the integrity to do what they were
morally bound to do in the first place, and that was to call the police.

This reality is much harder to stomach and it is the reason why Marylanders should be demanding legislation that will open a civil window of at least two years to
get some of these sociopaths and their records into a civil, if not criminal, courtroom where they belong.

Jesus said, "the truth shall set you free," but when will the truth be known?

Yes, the tragedy continues in the larger society but the tragedy in our own church continues while the list
only gets longer as the forced release of records and files makes evident.

Real accountability requires that all arbitrary, and they are arbitrary, statutes of limitation, criminal
and civil, on the sexual abuse of our children be removed and that a window of at least two years be
provided to allow previously time barred cases to be brought forward in a court of law.

In addition to the complete removal of statutes of limitation in regard to the sexual abuse of children, window legislation is the single most effective means of holding sexual predators of any stripe, along with any possible enablers, accountable.

It is unconscionable and downright immoral to be opposing the removal of SOLs and fighting allegations of crimes, known to be credible, in court on the basis of arbitrary SOLs.

There should be no accommodation in law that virtually barres victims of childhood sexual abuse from bringing
their cases forward in civil court.

Statements made by various denominations that dreadful mistakes were made in its handling of this or
that case, is reminiscent of statements made after the release of the Grand Jury Report on the
Archdiocese of Philadelphia in September of 2005.

Church spokesmen there even went so far as to blame everything on the Know-Nothings of the 1850s.

Unbelievable but true.

Church history tells us that the problems of sexual abuse were seriously condemned from the earliest days of the church. Church Councils and Canon Law were very
specific in their condemnations of sexual aberrations and just as specific as to punishments, sometimes even including death.

In Delaware, we were successful is totally removing statutes of limitation in regard to the sexual abuse of our children by anyone and we included a two year window for previously time barred cases. The Child Victims Law was signed by our Governor Ruth Ann Minner on July 10, 2007, and it covers everyone, everyone.

Delaware was able to accomplish this through its broad based, non-sectarian coalition, Child Victims Voice which included hundreds of individuals and organizations.

Visit the coalition website at
www.childvictimsvoice.com.

The people of Maryland deserve better and their state legislators need to pass similar child abuse laws.

Justice and Charity are what Jesus taught. He never said it was contingent on the price tag.

Sister Maureen Paul Turlish
Victims' Advocate

If the General assembly passes a tax on an industry that then dissolves, will anyone care?

If the General Assembly passes one hundred new tax increases, and there is non one left to pay them, what will happen to the people who are left?