Catholic Church Opposes Removing Statute of Limitations for Child Rape

[SteelCurtain]

I'm sorry, CL, but this is a major cop out. You can't discern whether or not there should be a time limit on when a person who raped a child should be free from being held accountable for their rape?

The way you're wording it is very leading though. Obviously I think people guilty of raping children shouldn't be free. My understanding is that the statute of limitations are in place to ensure that not enough time has passed to where sufficient evidence to convict someone has deteriorated with time. Some states in the US have those limitations on rape, others do not. Is it justifiable or reasonable for those states to have those limitations? What exactly are the conditions? Are they reasonable? Again, I don't know. How many innocent people have had their lives ruined due to being falsely accused of an alleged rape that happened decades ago in a state that does not have those limits, verses how many guilty people have walked free with plenty of evidence because of it in the states that do? What are the pros and cons and risks involved? Why do those statutes exist in the first place? I don't know the answer to these questions and so cannot make a strong comment on something I hardly know anything about.

But my whole point was that that's beyond the point. Even if I did do some research and came to the conclusion that those limitations do more harm than good and thus disagreed with the bishops in Wisconsin, I'd still be Catholic because I believe in it and I am not required as a Catholic to agree with everything every Catholic person does, including bishops, cardinals, and even popes. They don't make up the Church on their own. We all do, myself included.

And I'd still go to mass and contribute my share for being there. For that, I've already thoroughly explained why in my previous post. If you wanna take everything I said about that and have the take away be that I'm a supporter of child rapists for putting money in my parish's basket, fine. By your own logic though, I don't know why you would either like or think well of someone who you would classify as a supporter of child rape.

I'll drop it then. I don't think you're a bad person, otherwise I wouldn't continue to talk with you.

The more I talk with you, though, the more I get the sense that you live in a state of dissonance. You believe two things to be true at the same time that can't possibly both be true. I'm not sure how you do it, but you clearly do.