This special protection for the church is reprehensible

I am responding to the Oct. 5 editorial "Unjust Delay: Even Sex Abuse Scandals Deserve a Limit in Court."

The Pennsylvania courts were not asked to create a judicial exception to the statute of limitations in favor of the victims. The courts were asked only to apply the existing law.

There is a long-established exception to the statute of limitations in Pennsylvania, which applies to all citizens whenever there is an inability to discover a cause of a person's injury or harm. This is because the law favors fairness and justice for victims who could not have reasonably discovered facts that would have shown the participation of certain parties in the harm that they suffered. This is called the discovery rule and has long been established law in Pennsylvania.

In Allegheny County, Judge R. Stanton Wettick Jr. ruled that if the plaintiffs were able to prove that the Catholic Diocese of Pittsburgh had in fact sheltered and protected pedophile priests, and that such information was not readily known until the church scandals became public after 2002, a jury would have to decide whether the time period should be extended. As Judge Wettick stated in his opinion, "The jury may find that there is a loud ring of truth to plaintiff's statement that he and his family never approached diocesan officials to ask whether they had knowingly assigned to their church, to work directly with the parishioners including young boys, a priest with a history of sexually molesting children, because it would never cross their minds that the church would do so."

The Superior Court of Pennsylvania tells victims that they should have known that their beloved church may have been involved in allowing pedophile priests to continue to prey. The court refused to allow many victims to even go forward and prove the allegations of cover-up. Rather than "create a judicial exception" to benefit the victims, the Superior Court ignored existing Pennsylvania laws to create an exception solely to protect the Catholic Diocese. Now the Supreme Court of Pennsylvania has refused to even address this issue of great public importance. The tragedy of these cases is that the church has received special protection that is legally and morally reprehensible.

ALAN H. PERER
Swensen Perer & Kontos
Downtown
Editor's note: The writer is a lawyer representing people alleging abuse by priests.

A broken system

As Anya Sostek so excellently described in "The Onorato Effect: Don't Buy a House in Allegheny County" (Sept. 25 Forum), the property assessment system in Allegheny County is broken, dysfunctional and routinely uses suspect practices that penalize new homeowners.

One of these suspect practices I experienced when I bought my home in July 2002. Not only did the city Department of Finance file an appeal to reassess my house at the sales price, somehow it managed to file the paperwork before the sale closed when the sales value should have been known only to the seller and me. I've been unable to figure out how that privileged information was obtained, but what is worse, I was charged the new property tax value retroactively. This was in spite of the fact that property taxes had already been paid for that tax year.

Even more stunning to me, the new property taxes were neither prorated from the date of "reassessment" nor did they take into account the amount in tax that had already been paid for the year. No, the taxes were charged for the entire year in which the house was bought. Of course once I realized what had happened, my window for the appeal process had "closed." Then for a period of time the county told me my property didn't exist (but of course the property taxes must be paid on my nonexistent property).

I'd like to add one other bit of information from my experience. While it is possible to eventually appeal one's property assessment and file to appeal the decision, the homeowner shouldn't hold his or her breath waiting for the court date. Fifteen months after filing, I am still waiting for notification of a court date for my appeal.

There is simply no justification for the corrupt practices I have experienced since moving to Pittsburgh and buying property in Allegheny County. I have lived many other places in the United States where owning a home was a good investment, so it never occurred to me that owning a home could be foolish. Ah, welcome to Pittsburgh.

ROBYN CRUZ
Highland Park

My plan is no worse

I have a counterproposal to Allegheny County Chief Executive Dan Onorato's idea for property assessments. Why not start with the distance of the property to the moon, divide that by 33 percent of your Social Security number, multiply that by 20 percent of your age and divide that by 2,500? That would provide an assessment system that is as fair, equitable, sensible and easy as anything Mr. Onorato or his fellow council members could or will come up with.

Or, an even wilder system would be to assess every property correctly and let the boroughs, county and school districts adjust the millage appropriately.

PAT CURTIS
Sewickley

No property tax

Regarding the Sept. 25 letter "An Alternative": Eliminating property taxes would be a boon to many citizens. People will remain in their homes until they want to sell them. A society that churns the elderly out of their homes and neighborhoods to attract younger, gainfully employed people is harsh. Older people make a contribution as well.

More young people will be able to buy homes in Pennsylvania when mortgage payments are reduced by the absence of property taxes. We should increase both the personal income tax and the sales tax and completely eliminate the property taxes. Thank you to former KDKA radio personality Bob Logue and state Sen. Sean Logan, who are fighting to eliminate homeowner property taxes!

SALLY BIRMINGHAM
Mt. Lebanon

Special Pittsburgh

I am a native of Pittsburgh who moved to New Orleans a little more than 21 years ago. I have been working as a musician for all those 21 years and have been displaced and jobless since Katrina. I recently visited my father in Wilkins to show him that I am well.

As someone who adopted another city as my home, I am nevertheless proud and honored to be from the "Burgh." The compassion and sympathy I found toward my plight in New Orleans was overwhelming. The heartfelt concern of my former friends and neighbors, family and strangers alike, was sincere and warm. I even had some friends who I haven't seen in quite a while actually take up a collection in my behalf. Many people who don't even know me contributed to my well-being.

I plan to rebuild my life and return to New Orleans, but I will always have a place in my heart for the place where I was born and raised.

A writer once wrote, "You can't go home again." I'm here to tell you that you can. The strength of character and determination I have has been reinforced by the good people of Pittsburgh. Thank you, father. Thank you friends. Thank you, Pittsburgh.

LES "RUSTY" COLONELLO
Fairhope, Ala.

Watch vaccine issue

In reading your Oct. 7 editorial "Aborting Health Care: Fixated Republicans Hurt the State's Poor Women," I wondered about a front-page story the same day: A new vaccine against two types of HPV (human papillomavirus) is 100 percent effective in protecting women from developing cervical cancer ("Cancer Vaccine Highly Effective").

Specifically, I wondered whether the same general cast would be involved in pressuring the Food and Drug Administration not to approve it for use (as with the "morning-after pill") or deny funding to organizations that will make it available, on the grounds that it would "promote promiscuity." The highly common HPV is sexually transmitted.

I'm waiting to see what happens. I'll be very surprised if this beneficial vaccine just goes smoothly into production, thence into protecting young girls from having to face the nightmare of cervical cancer.

CAROLE McINTYRE

Bono and others have made the world better

Dennis Roddy is well off base in concluding that Bono and other celebrities should stay home and not get involved with politics ("Must Celebrities Save the World, Too?" Sept. 25 column). If Bono were to just make great music, not getting involved with world affairs, the world would be an "unkinder, ungentler" place.

The strides that have been made by Bono, including feeding Africa and debt relief to nations suffering from famine and disease, would be accomplished by no one. If it takes a charismatic and ambitious rock musician to change the world, not only with music but by bringing world politics to change, so be it.

Mr. Roddy should concentrate instead on why world leaders pretend to lead, taking excessive vacations (a la George W. Bush) and do nothing to change the landscape of poverty and disease in Third World nations.

JAMES R. FORD
Shadyside