December 02, 2021
Updated: Dec. 02, 2021, 7:00 a.m. | Published: Dec. 02, 2021, 7:00 a.m.
Since Gov. Murphy signed a 2019 law that suspended the statute of limitations for civil sex abuse lawsuits for two years, more than 1,200 cases were filed -- two-thirds of them against clergy or a religious institution.
A window to justice opened, and the people who had spent years or decades harboring an unfathomable pain stepped through it.
But the deadline for those victims to file suit ended Tuesday, and examination of the available data makes this much clear: The suspension of the statute needs to be extended, and our lawmakers should consider waiving it entirely.
Victims of abuse need time to decide whether they can share their experience. That’s why the bill
championed by Senator Joe Vitale was crucial, because the previous window for civil action in our state was preposterous: Victims had to bring civil suits before they turned 20 or within two years from the time they connected their trauma to the abuse.
That’s why one examination of these lawsuits filed during this two-year window is revealing.
The Record reports that 80% are based on allegations that took place between 1960 and 1990. Only 40 are related to incidents that occurred after 1990.
November 14, 2021
More than 40 years after a 15-year-old boy was reportedly sexually abused by the Rev. John Capparelli, the alleged victim filed a lawsuit in Essex County Superior Court against the Archdiocese of Newark and the church where the disgraced, defrocked priest — who was murdered in 2019 — once served.
The plaintiff in the case, not identified by name, spoke of being raised in a devout Catholic family and participating in youth and church activities at Holy Trinity Church in Westfield, before ultimately becoming a victim to what was described only as “unpermitted sexual contact.”
It is just one of hundreds of civil lawsuits that have been filed in New Jersey since the state opened a two-year window that greatly extended the amount of time victims of sexual abuse had to sue.
And now, that window is closing. At the end of the month, a two-year extension allowing such lawsuits on decades-old allegations comes to an end.
Advocates, however, say the COVID pandemic has made it difficult for victims to meet with attorneys and build their cases and have called for more time to allow others to seek justice.
“The pandemic closed our courts for some time and it delayed in many ways the statewide investigation of the five Catholic Dioceses in New Jersey,” said Mark Crawford, a clergy abuse survivor and state leader of SNAP — Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests.
The New Jersey law, passed in 2019 and signed by Gov. Phil Murphy, waived the statute of limitations to sue under a 24-month time period ending on Nov. 30, 2021. The law also allowed adults who were assaulted as children to file civil suits until they turn 55, or seven years after they discover that they were abused. It targeted not only individuals who allegedly committed sexual assault, but the churches, athletic organizations, schools and community organizations for whom they had worked.
November 02, 2021
This November we have a great chance to bring the needs, wants, and asks of survivors to the world stage in a big way! SNAP and leading advocacy organizations, such as Darkness 2 Light, RAINN, Together for Girls, and the Army of Survivors, will recognize November 18th as the international #EndChildSexAbuseDay.
More than 50 countries will be joining us as we make noise on social media and in the streets to draw attention to the needs of survivors, the ways we can prevent abuse, and the action that we are demanding our leaders and elected officials take. We need your voice to join the chorus!
On November 18 we, as part of the steering group for the Keep Kids Safe coalition, will release our Federal Blueprint for action (click here to read the blueprint in full). A key part of this blueprint, and something that SNAPpers have demanded for years, is the importance of a federal investigation into institutions that perpetuate abuse and cover-up, like the Catholic Church, Southern Baptist Convention, and others.
October 28, 2021
By David Clohessy
10/28/2021
An ex-priest in the St. Louis area, who is the most highly ranked and prominent US Catholic official to ever face criminal charges of child sexual abuse is back in a courtroom today.
https://whdh.com/news/court-hearing-scheduled-for-ex-cardinal-mccarrick-accused-of-sexually-assaulting-teen-boy-in-mass-nearly-50-years-ago/
https://www.snapnetwork.org/former_cardinal_theodore_mccarrick_s_pre_trial_hearing_is_to_be_held_thursday_october_28
Very few St. Louisans know that he and dozens of other predators from all across the US are living here. Sure, he’s old. Sure, the church center that houses him is ‘out in the boondocks.’ But that doesn’t mean he’s ‘cured’ and is now safe, nor that we should care less about the safety of rural kids. And virtually none of those predators in Dittmer - who’ve been deemed too dangerous, by their own church supervisors, to live back in their home dioceses - are known to St. Louis parents, police, prosecutors, or parishioners.
The cleric in court today is Theodore McCarrick, the only US Catholic cardinal, current or former, ever to be charged with child sex crimes. We hope his prosecution happens quickly. We hope that his victims feel some measure of relief and validation that he’s finally facing justice. And we hope that Catholic officials in St. Louis finally begin honoring their pledges to be ’open’ about abuse and disclose the names of the hundreds of out-of-state child molesting clerics who’ve been secretly welcomed into our archdiocese for decades.
https://www.snapnetwork.org/fact_sheet_on_st_louis_area_accused_priests_feb19
https://www.snapnetwork.org/snap_press_releases/2005_press_releases/012505_importing_predators.htm
October 21, 2021
The Pontifical Commission for the Protection of Minors publishes a "letter to seminarians" written by a woman who, as a little girl, was sexually abused by a priest
The Pontifical Commission for the Protection of Minors released a letter from a victim abused sexually by a priest, on Monday, October 18.
By Loup Besmond de Senneville | Vatican City
At the insistence of Pope Francis, the Pontifical Commission for the Protection of Minors has published a "letter to seminarians" written by a woman who was sexually abused by a priest when she was a little girl."I am also here on behalf of the other victims... children who were deeply hurt, whose childhood, purity and respect were stolen... who were betrayed and had their unlimited trust taken advantage of… They were killed once (twice, many times)... their souls were torn into little bloody pieces," says the unidentified author in a letter in Italian that she sent to the pope. Francis then instructed the pontifical commission to publish the text on its website."For years I was abused by a priest," writes the woman. "I try to survive, to feel joy, but in fact, it is an incredibly difficult struggle," she continues. My body "remembers every touch""I suffer from dissociative identity disorder, severe complex post-traumatic stress disorder, depression, anxiety, fear of others," she writes, emphasizing that her body still "remembers every touch"."I don't sleep and if I can fall asleep, I still have nightmares," the abuse survivor says."I am afraid of priests, of being around them," she adds, saying she can no longer go to Mass. The woman then makes a poignant appeal to seminarians and priests. "Please do not allow these wounds to be even deeper and new ones to occur! ... God has called you to be his instrument among humanity. You have a GREAT RESPONSIBILITY! A responsibility that is not a burden, but a GIFT!" she writes. She urges the men not to "sweep things under the rug", because "otherwise, the rug itself will fall apart"."Realize that when we hide these facts when we remain silent about them, we hide the dirt and thus become a COMPLICIT," the abuse survivor warns the clerics and seminarians. She ends her letter with this appeal: "PLEASE BE A GOOD PRIEST!"
