Sen. Bob Casey, D-Pa., said the Senate should examine laws regarding the statute of limitations in the wake of a major report that found the Catholic Church covered up decades of abuse in Pennsylvania.
A grand jury report found that more than 300 priests in Pennsylvania abused more than 1,000 children for the past 70 years.
“We believe that the real number — of children whose records were lost, or who were afraid ever to come forward — is in the thousands,” the grand jury report said.
Casey, who is up for re-election this fall, said that any “bishop, priest or other official involved has to be held accountable. There are some limits to that and maybe some state law changes as a result of this about statute of limitations.”
Pennsylvania has a 12-year statute of limitations for criminal cases of sexual abuse. There is a five-year statute of limitations for federal crimes.
