LAKE CHARLES, La. (ChurchMilitant.com) – An appeals court in Louisiana is affirming the constitutionality of a child sex abuse law that was challenged by the diocese of Lafayette.
On Thursday, the Louisiana Third Circuit Court of Appeals ruled in favor of the state’s 2021 law (House Bill 492), which provided victims with a three-year “lookback window” to take legal action on cases that passed the previous statute of limitations.
“This is a day we, along with survivors, will never forget. This ruling means that survivors who were abused in the past by Catholic priests can finally have their day in court,” remarked attorney Jeff Anderson.
“Instead of taking accountability, Church leadership tried to push back and evade responsibility for cover-up of abuse,” Anderson continued. “We applaud the Louisiana court for their ruling and look forward to helping survivors in Louisiana with their journey to healing.”
According to Louisiana’s news station WWL, “The diocese of Lafayette was the latest Catholic Church entity to argue the lookback window was unconstitutional, trying to bar a complaint by a man who alleged he suffered sex abuse by a priest in 1961 or 1962.”
Richard Windmann, a sex abuse survivor and president of Survivors of Childhood Sex Abuse, told Church Militant, “We are very excited about this victory. We’ll be interested to see if the dioceses and archdiocese will continue to challenge this law. A lot of cases are no longer stalled, and justice can finally move forward for the victims and survivors.”
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Previously, the Louisiana Supreme Court refused to rule on the law’s constitutionality in a case filed by Holy Cross. It is speculated that Thursday’s ruling will be appealed to the state supreme court.
“The Louisiana Legislature passed the lookback window in 2021, amending a 1993 law to eliminate any statute of limitations on claims of child sex abuse,” explains WWL. Louisiana’s original law only gave children one year to file claims of abuse, which was later amended to the time the child turned 18. Now, the statute of limitations has been eliminated completely for all cases after the law’s signing.
The local news reported, “Church entities and their insurers argued the lookback window enacted in 2021 shouldn’t apply to any abuse that occurred before 1993.” Currently, the lookback window is in effect for all childhood sex abuse victims to file claims, regardless of current age, until June 14, 2024.
The diocese of Lafayette was ground zero for the Church’s modern sex abuse scandal and was part of the 2002 investigation by The Boston Globe. In 1985, Gilbert Gauthe, a priest, became the first publicized abuser in the U.S. Church, after being charged with 34 counts of molestation against boys.
“For more than a decade, he had raped and abused his young male victims. Parents lodged complaints, and the dioceses paid them off, shuffling Gauthe from parish to parish,” Church Militant previously reported. “But in 1983, one family refused to take the money and went public, making that one of the first cases of abuse the Boston Globe journalists would use to show the massive cover-up of sex abuse endemic in the Church hierarchy.”