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Catholic Sex Abuse Grand Jury Report: Recommendations For Changing Laws

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Rep. Mark Rozzi, D-Berks, speaks at a rally in Pennsylvania's Capitol to support legislation he has written to lift time limits for authorities to pursue charges of child sexual abuse and for those onetime child victims to sue their attackers and institutions that covered it up, Tuesday, June 12, 2018 in Harrisburg, Pa. Rozzi plans to renew his push for the bill after the expected publication of a sweeping grand jury report on allegations of child sexual abuse and cover-ups within six Roman Catholic dioceses around Pennsylvania. (Marc Levy/AP)
Rep. Mark Rozzi, D-Berks, speaks at a rally in Pennsylvania's Capitol to support legislation he has written to lift time limits for authorities to pursue charges of child sexual abuse and for those onetime child victims to sue their attackers and institutions that covered it up, Tuesday, June 12, 2018 in Harrisburg, Pa. Rozzi plans to renew his push for the bill after the expected publication of a sweeping grand jury report on allegations of child sexual abuse and cover-ups within six Roman Catholic dioceses around Pennsylvania. (Marc Levy/AP)

With Meghna Chakrabarti

The Pennsylvania grand jury report on clergy sexual abuse also included four recommendations for law changes. We take a closer look.

Guests

Rep. Mark Rozzi, Democratic state representative for the 126th District in Pennsylvania. He is a victim of clergy sex abuse. (@StateRepRozzi)

Sen. Jake Corman, Republican senate majority leader in Pennsylvania. (@JakeCorman)

From The Reading List

The Morning Call: "Key Pennsylvania grand jury recommendation faces opposition from Catholic church" — "As Pennsylvania’s 40th investigative grand jury concluded its two-year dive into horrifying accounts of Catholic priests raping and molesting more than 1,000 children, it left the Legislature with some homework.

"'We spent 24 months dredging up the most depraved behavior, only to find that the laws protect most of its perpetrators, and leave its victims with nothing,' the grand jury wrote. 'What makes it worthwhile is knowing we can do some kind of justice.' "

Washington Post: "He was raped by a priest as a teen. 30 years later, he’s getting justice." — "Mark Rozzi dropped out of college and was working at his family’s window and door installation company when a tragic life event inspired him to make a drastic career change. He went into politics.

"He did it for one reason: justice.

"Rozzi had vowed when he was 13 to never speak of what happened to him when he was a boy. He wouldn’t tell anyone that a priest at his parochial school in Berks County, Pa., had lured him with McDonald’s and beer and pornography for weeks before raping him in a rectory shower. He buried his secret, but the shame and the guilt were always there, haunting his dreams and fueling his depression.

"But in March 2009, when a second childhood friend who also had been a victim of the priest’s abuse killed himself, Rozzi was inconsolable. He blamed himself for not telling someone. Maybe then he could have stopped it from happening to his friends and the dozens of others who later accused the Rev. Edward Graff of abusing them. He also worried that the darkness he carried inside him would one day kill him, too.

"As he slowly picked himself back up from the throes of his deepest depression, he decided to end his silence. His friends’ memories deserved more.

"Five years later, Rozzi stood on the chamber floor of the Pennsylvania House of Representatives last week, in his second term as an elected official, and made an emotional appeal to his colleagues to support a bill that would remove the statute of limitations on criminal charges in child abuse cases."

This segment aired on August 23, 2018.

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