Puritans ruled early Connecticut. At best, Roman Catholics were viewed with suspicion. Religious freedom was written into our most important document, but the notion was given only reluctant fealty.

But Catholics have always been here. They fought in the Revolution and today a statue of one of their own, Casimir Pulaski, guards Pulaski Mall on Hartford's Main Street.

By sheer numbers, an influx of Catholics fleeing the Irish famine in the mid-1800s changed the state's landscape. In 1958, a paper delivered by a University of Connecticut history professor in Washington proposed that a Catholic president was a possibility "within a few years."

Just two, in fact. Anti-Catholic sentiment bubbled up during the presidential campaign of John F. Kennedy, though according to a 1959 column from The Courant, the discussion wasn't nearly as hateful as that accompanying the 1928 candidacy of Al Smith, also a Catholic. Still, the way some Irish remember those long ago (and rare) "No Irish Need Apply" signs in business windows, some Catholics remain poised for defense.

That vigilance is not necessarily a bad thing. Last year, in response to a 2006 case of fraud, Connecticut legislators discussed a bill that would have changed the way churches handle their own financial oversight. Clergy and parishioners cried foul, and the bill was tabled.

With that history, one can see how some Catholics would be on guard for assaults on their religious freedom.

But House Bill 5473 regardless of what the church says from pulpits and in bulletin inserts and big newspaper ads is no such assault.

5473 extends the civil statute of limitations on seeking redress after the sexual abuse, assault or exploitation of a minor. Though the bill also sets strict rules for people who want to file a lawsuit, it is opposed by the Insurance Association of Connecticut, St. Francis Hospital and Medical Center employer of George Reardon, an endocrinologist accused of abusing and assaulting hundreds of children and the Archdiocese of Hartford.

Last month, testimony from the Connecticut Catholic Public Affairs Conference before the legislative judiciary committee said the bill seeks to alter law that is already "extraordinarily generous to people with sexual abuse claims."

That's just sad. It can take years to come to grips with childhood sexual abuse, and then years more to be able to speak out publicly.