Dum-da-dum-dum

There are $4-billion worth of lawsuits alleging sexual abuses and cover-ups about to be filed against the Catholic Church.

Across the country, attorneys like Slater are scrambling to file a new wave of lawsuits alleging sexual abuse by clergy, thanks to rules enacted in 15 states that extend or suspend the statute of limitations to allow claims stretching back decades. Associated Press reporting found the deluge of suits could surpass anything the nation’s clergy sexual abuse crisis has seen before, with potentially more than 5,000 new cases and payouts topping $4 billion.

It’s a financial reckoning playing out in such populous Catholic strongholds as New York, California and New Jersey, among the eight states that go the furthest with “lookback windows” that allow sex abuse claims no matter how old. Never before have so many states acted in near-unison to lift the restrictions that once shut people out if they didn’t bring claims of childhood sex abuse by a certain age, often their early 20s.

There is doubtless some cynical opportunism going on here. I am sure that some of the lawyers, and the complainants they represent, are just looking for fast paydays. Even so, I’m glad to see a day of reckoning bearing-down on the church. The Abrahamic faiths have been a sickness in society for millennia, and I’m all for whatever weakens them and undermines their spread.

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