Survivors of clergy sex abuse urge Gov. Wolf to push Legislature to fast track reforms to child sex crime laws

James Faluszczak in 2018 testified in the grand jury investigation that uncovered widespread clergy sex abuse across the state. Since then he has lent his voice to the effort to reform the statute of limitations.

On Tuesday, Faluszczak was back at it, joining about 10 other survivors of child sex abuse on a one-hour video phone chat with Gov. Tom Wolf to ask him to do all in his power to urge the General Assembly to not let victims down.

One day after the collapse of an effort to see through a constitutional amendment that would have given victims timed out of the courts a chance at justice, Faluszczak and the other survivors asked the governor to push legislators to forgo another protracted referendum process and immediately enact statutory changes to the state’s child sex crime laws.

“Wolf said it could happen as early as next week,” said Faluszczak, who was molested as a child by a priest in his home diocese of Erie. “But I thought that two years ago. They can do this next week.”

On Monday, the Wolf administration announced the stunning news that a ballot referendum option would be delayed by two years because the Department of State had failed to fulfill the legal requirements under the law. Lawmakers had been poised to approve a measure to amend the constitution this week, which was expected to be the final step before it could get on the ballot for voter approval this spring.

The mistake means that the earliest voters can decide whether to create a two-year window is spring of 2023. Secretary of State Kathy Boockvar is slated to resign her position later this week and took responsibility for her department’s failure to advertise the proposed amendment, as required by law.

State Representatives Mark Rozzi and Jim Gregory, the sponsors of two key pieces of reform legislation, vowed to push through for legislative action. Some Democratic lawmakers have said they want to move forward with revamping state law to allow a retroactive window for victims.

Republican leadership called for an investigation into the blunder, but did not signal willingness to push through legislative action. Republicans, in general, have over the years argued that lifting expired civil statutes of limitations was unconstitutional, but should be put to a ballot referendum.

The bill authored by Gregory, R-Blair County, called for such a vote, which could have been on the ballot for the May 18 primary.

Faluszczak said he detected a new level of commitment from the governor to push for an immediate resolution.

“He’s always said he would sign a bill that lands on his desk. He said that again today,” he said. “I said we already know that. We know you support that. We need him to be a standard bearer on this and to do more than pledge his signature. We need him to work whatever levers and dialogue that he can engage in. He’s the one who said this could happen next week.”

Faluszczak said survivors are devastated at the news.

“Some of these folks are parents. Their kids died because of this,” he said. “We’ve all struggled with addictions or relationships or professional responsibilities. That was more the substance of the call. He knows us, but he really knows us now.”

Faluszczak said Wolf was “100 percent accountable” for what he considers a failure on the executive level.

“I would say none of us on the call were there to put his feet to the fire,” he said. “I think we all know he is a supporter of our plight. He is an advocate for justice. You don’t see people of his stature taking responsibility on a call. Five or six times he made it clear, unprompted, that he considers this an executive failure, and he considers it a failure for what he is trying to do for us. You could sense he regards this as a failure in his advocacy.”

A request for comment from the governor’s office by PennLive was not immediately returned

___

(c)2021 The Patriot-News (Harrisburg, Pa.)

Visit The Patriot-News (Harrisburg, Pa.) at www.pennlive.com

Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC.