I blogged recently on a proposed law in Colorado that would lift the statute of limitations for filing sex abuse claims, but only for private institutions, like the Church, leaving public institutions, like schools exempt.
The Denver archdiocese isn’t taking this lying down and has uncovered a previously unknown list of reports of sexual misconduct by Colorado teachers. The list includes 85 reports since 1997. While many had teaching licenses revoked or denied, there was no further punishment for perverts who “prey on grade-schoolers, plying them with love notes ... Teachers who download pornography on their desktop computers while students sit before them…Teachers who encourage students to meet them surreptitiously after school, on out-of-town trips, and who give them marijuana or alcohol in exchange for sex.”
Bishops ignoring and abetting perversions of abusive priests is bad and no one’s trying to excuse that, but the establishment in Colorado is trying to single out the Church as a bad guy, while quietly hiding its own records of sliding things under the rug, while simultaneously exempting itself from civil or criminal liability.
A lot of very powerful and expensive lawyers want this legislation passed so they can file more lawsuits against the archdiocese and force more big settlements, potentially in cases of dubious merit from decades ago where the accused is long dead. This isn’t just about justice for victims. Not when there’s this much money flowing.
