A prominent Chicago bishop is suggesting legal changes that would shield Roman Catholic institutions from paying excessive damages in sex abuse lawsuits. The bishop claims that the civil lawsuits are jeopardizing the church.
Auxiliary Bishop Thomas Paprocki, a civil and canon lawyer and one of Cardinal Francis George’s six active deputies, recently suggested in a homily to Catholic lawyers and judges that decisions to award large sums to victims of clergy abuse place an excessive burden on the free exercise of religion for American Catholics.
“This burden needs to be lifted,” Paprocki said and to accomplish this he seeks the protection of charitable immunity. All states have removed charitable immunity as a shield for chruches in the wake of widespread sex abuse cases involving priests.
What this Bishop seems to have forgotten is that many of these lawsuits would not have been filed if the Church did its job and policed their own. To read more about the Bishop’s thoughts, click here.
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