Germans who were sexually abused as minors will now have an opportunity to seek civil justice from their abusers as well the organizations that hid the abuse. The new statute of limitations for sexual abuse cases has been extended from 3 years to 30 years past the age of 21.
The new legislation which is expected to be passed by the German parliament later this year, is a positive response to the Catholic sex abuse scandal that rocked the country last year. The scandal implicated the present Pope when he was the Archbishop of Munich in the late 1970’s. In the midst of the scandal last year, documents were uncovered that a notorious sex abuser was transferred under the auspices of then Archbishop Joseph Ratzinger.
Let’s hope individual states in this country, especially New York and Pennsylvania follow the good example of Germany.