States Follow California's Lead on Priest Abuse

As the impact of the sex abuse scandal in the Roman Catholic Church increasingly moves toward the nation's courts, lawmakers around the country are debating proposals pioneered in California to extend time limits for criminal prosecutions of abusive priests and for civil lawsuits against church officials accused of shielding them.

The proposals could increase the financial liability of the church, which expects more than 1,000 suits to be filed nationwide this year alleging priests' sexual abuse of minors.

Organizations that lobby on behalf of sex-abuse victims and lawyers who are suing the church are actively pushing measures in at least 15 states.

The receptiveness in those state capitols shows a "heightened awareness by legislators of the extent of the problem and the failure of existing laws," said David Clohessy, national director of the Survivors Network of Those Abused by Priests, most prominent of the victims groups.

But top Catholic Church lawyers warn that some of the proposals threaten freedom of religion.

"Through our wrong actions, we have opened the door for government to attempt to step more vigorously across the constitutional boundary between the business of religion and the business of government and remake the church in dangerous ways," Mark Chopko, general counsel for the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops, said in a recent speech. "Someone has to say, 'Enough is enough' "

Church leaders are particularly concerned about a Kentucky measure that would remove the traditional confidentiality of the confessional. In most states, a priest generally does not have to provide evidence of criminal conduct when the information is gained during a confession. The proposed Kentucky law would eliminate that protection if a person had confessed that he or she sexually abused a minor.

"I understand the confessional is a sacred thing," said Kentucky state Rep. Susan Westrom, a Democrat who sponsored the legislation. "But I also understand our priests and ministers are the front line to God, and if they can't protect a child, what is their job? It's not just to pray for them. What is right is right and wrong is wrong."

But some church officials say such legislation would force priests to choose between observing "Caesar's law" and their sacred vows.

"It used to be the custom you'd never make a religious person or institution choose between following their faith and obeying the law," Chopko said in an interview.