Nebraska's attorney general recently identified 57 priests and other Catholic officials responsible for allegedly sexually abusing more than 250 victims, mainly boys, over decades while the church's hierarchy shrugged or covered up the crimes. The number of clerics who will be criminally prosecuted is zero. Yes, it's an old story. As in other states, and many countries, prosecuting clerical abusers in Nebraska for crimes committed years ago is impossible because the criminal statute of limitations has closed or the abusers themselves are dead. Most of the instances of reported abuse documented by the state attorney general's office took place in the 1970s, '80s, and '90s and tapered off over the past 20 years. Nebraska has changed its laws to eliminate any time limit on prosecutions for future child sex assaults, but past cases remain off limits both for criminal charges and for lawsuits. It's an old story; it's also a current one. Typically, the victims, whose abusers are often authority figures, say nothing for years. In Nebraska, the hair-raising details of Attorney General Doug Peterson's report reflect the depth of the church's arrogance and impunity. One of the state's three dioceses, based in Lincoln, for years refused to participate in the church's own annual reviews of sexual misconduct. Incredibly, the church tolerated it. It was in Lincoln that church higher-ups knew about multiple allegations of sexual abuse for at least 15 years against James Benton, a priest who continued on in ministry until his retirement in 2017.