.- Officials of the Archdiocese of Detroit have criticized an auxiliary bishop for supporting a statute of limitations that would give clergy abuse victims more time to sue. Bishop Thomas Gumbleton, 75, spoke last week in support of Ohio legislation to extend the statute of limitations on lawsuits alleging sexual abuse by priests. During his talk in Columbus, Ohio, he also revealed that a priest had inappropriately touched him while he was a student at a Catholic high school in the mid-1940s.
However, diocesan spokesperson Ned McGrath pointed out Sunday that Bishop Gumbleton authorized church lawyers to invoke a statute of limitations to block lawsuits that claimed he and others failed to monitor a priest accused of abusing children.
The bishop said the legal defense was invoked without his knowledge.
