Five years ago last week, Anthony J. O'Connell resigned in disgrace as bishop of Palm Beach. He had sexually abused boys. It had happened so long ago that he no longer faced criminal charges. He would step down, however, from the Palm Beach Diocese, which he had been asked to heal after another bishop resigned under similar circumstances.Three months later, the nation's Catholic bishops established a "zero-tolerance" policy for sex abuse by clergy.
Even though the Vatican watered down their work, the bishops succeeded in clearly pronouncing their distaste for the sexual abuse scandals that had cost their institution millions in settlements and an immeasurable loss of faith from their followers.
Michael Dolce, a lawyer in Palm Beach Gardens, is a survivor of abuse. It happened a long time ago. He was 7. The "perpetrators," as he calls them, were two men in his Baltimore neighborhood, a father and his teenaged son. They threatened the 7-year-old boy with a gun if he told anyone anything about what they did to him. He didn't tell.
Mr. Dolce grew up with that. He was withdrawn, a loner. But he excelled in school. He graduated from high school early, went to college and earned a law degree in Florida. In his late 20s, he began therapy.
If Michael Dolce had been abused in Florida, it would have been too late by that time to do anything about his abuse. The perpetrators would have escaped legal consequences when the statute of limitations expired four years after his 18th birthday.
Recently, the Legislature erased the statute of limitations for sexual abuse of children younger than 13, such as Michael, but not for past crimes. And legislators left intact the rule for abuse of children aged 13 to 18; once they turn 22, no criminal charges. The law gives victims until the age of 25 to sue.
Too often, Mr. Dolce says, the public is told that abuse charges are too old and that perpetrators must go free because the statute of limitations has expired. He wants that changed. A few years after law school, Mr. Dolce went to work as an aide to then-state Sen. Skip Campbell, D-Coral Springs. In 2004, after returning to private practice, Mr. Dolce proposed a bill.
The bill would create a unique floating statute of limitations for sex abuse crimes. The four-year period wouldn't begin at the arbitrary date currently set in Florida law. It wouldn't be raised to some arbitrary figure, such as 30, as in Pennsylvania.
It would be based on the victim's ability not just to recall the horrific crime but to deal with long-repressed memories. Victims would have to be ready to confront their attacker. That timing would be determined by the victim's doctor.
Michael Dolce found sponsors for his bill in 2004, 2005 and 2006, but it didn't go anywhere. It encountered stiff opposition from the Catholic Church. It's not that the Florida Catholic Conference doesn't feel sympathy for victims of abuse, the conference wrote Mr. Dolce in 2004.
In fact, the conference has no problem with extending the statute of limitations for criminal charges. It's just that the conference is worried about civil liability "30, 40 or even more years after an alleged act underlying the suit took place."
"The provisions in the bill," wrote conference Executive Director Michael McCarron, "do not encourage the prompt reporting of abuse."
Michael Dolce has a problem with that. If the church does what it says it will do and promptly reports abuse, it won't be liable 40 years later. And in its sympathy for victims, it must understand that in most cases victims cannot come forward immediately.
"A survivor," Michael Dolce said, "needs time to get to a safe place. Put that against an arbitrary deadline in a state statute and it just doesn't make sense."
You'd think that the Catholic Church, an institution that should itself be seeking healing, would understand.
If zero-tolerance really were the policy, the church would back Michael Dolce's proposal - House Bill 1081 and Senate Bill 2246.
Five years after Bishop O'Connell, it's time for the church to do anything it can to put its own trauma behind.
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