I want to thank the gentleman that wrote to support removing the statute of limitations on childhood sexual abuse by clergy.
I know from my experience what sexual abuse by clergy does to a person. I too did not seek treatment for 45 years. The abuse started when I was 12 or 13 years old and lasted about five years.
My treatment lasted seven years, often twice a week, just to keep me alive. I can recall putting my head, tears flowing, my body shaking, on my desk and thinking “How could what happened 45 years ago still be so traumatic for me?
I am a professional successful woman yet memories haunt me and chase me from sanity, from living.” The tears, pain, shame, loss, fears, degradation, angst, and depression overwhelmed me. I still cannot begin to answer my own question and I lived through it. The only crime for which there is a statute of limitations is murder. I have to ask, “What about murder of the soul?” We protect institutions but not children. I too support this statute.
Nancy Galatowitsch
Merrifield
