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The NY Post is hearing from some state lawmakers that Brooklyn Diocese Bishop allegedly "threatened [them] by vowing to close churches in their districts -- and blame them for the closures -- if they dared support a bill making it easier for people who were sexually assaulted as kids to sue." The Child Victims Act, sponsored by Assembly Member Margaret Markey (D-Queens), is headed to the Assembly for debate soon "seeks to extend the statute of limitations for lawsuits involving the rape or molesting of youngsters. It could cost the Church hundreds of millions in payouts to victimized parishioners." Apparently DiMarzio confronted lawmakers about the bill last fall; one Assembly member described, "He said, 'If it passes, we will close a parish in each of your districts and we will tell your constituents that it was your fault.'" DiMarzio's spokesman denies the charges of blackmail, but did note, "The consequences for our community would be profound," adding, "We're dealing with an anti-Catholic bias that's pervading the New York state Assembly."
Brooklyn Bishop Opposes Child Molestation Lawsuit Bill
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Those Mariachi guys piss me off when you enter a mostly silent subway car.
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god bless the unborn, for the have not been ass raped by thy local parish priest. so sayith the Lord. Amen.
They'd support abortion if the molestees were girls.
If you want to understand what this is really about, read this.
Clearly they lack any compassion for old priests! Consider that by the time some of these charges are brought to light, their age and fortitude won't allow them to quickly hop into a car service to JFK and feebly climb aboard a first-class seat to Vatican City before having to face charges.
"...we will close a parish in each of your districts..."
I don't see how this is a bad thing.
Gee, if only the church had taken this problem seriously all those years ago, this might not be happening. Oh yeah, and some kids would not have been molested.
I think the church bureaucracy needs to understand the concept of judgement and punishment for wrongdoing. It must be hard to take your own medicine.
I don't know what they are complaining about. They still have all of Europe, Africa and South America where they can molest uncontested.
That's changing a lot. In Ireland the local churches are on the hook for generations of child abuse. If they're in bad shape over there, they're not in good shape anywhere.
What happens in the rectumry stays in the rectumry? Nah...
The Catholic Church is such a piece of shit, I mean really. The pope is a piece of shit, the priests are pieces of shit, the religion is piece of shit. No wait, CHRISTIANITY is piece of shit (and so is Judaism and Islam). I hate them all.
All is forgiven in the name of the god Moloch.
If the church wants to influence legislation, either for or against, then it should lose it's tax exempt status. It's time for religion to pay it's fair share.
Yo, Bishop DiMarzio! Just so I understand: a law that would help protect victims of childhood sexual assault and prosecute their assailants is anti-Catholic? You know, your church could have avoided any problems with this bill by ensuring that their clergy members weren't harming children, and taking appropriate actions to stop it when they found out it was happening.
We reap what we sow.
"Just so I understand: a law that would help protect victims of childhood sexual assault and prosecute their assailants is anti-Catholic?"
No, the Bishop is upset because this is unfairly targeting the church. More molestations happens in public schools than in Catholic schools, yet the statute of limitations for government entities is, I believe, a mere 18 months.
So the city and state governments are basically exempt from this law and the church, boy scouts and other private organizations have bulls-eyes on their backs.
If the legislature wanted to make things fair, they would remove the statute of limitations for lawsuits against the government. But the trial lawyers this bill was meant to help out wouldn't make money off that.
Except that's not true. The full text of the bill is here:
http://assembly.state.ny.us/leg/?bn=A02596&sh=t
There's absolutely nothing there targeting the church or specifying anything about public or private institutions. Nothing. It is simply upping the statute of limitations by five years.
Also, criminal/civil proceedings for sexual assault are enacted against the perpetrator, not the institution where the perp worked or lived.
Again, if he's worried about the church being sued, maybe he should stop his priests from attacking children. Maybe the church should have taken a more proactive stance against it over the years, instead of keeping quiet and transferring the pedophiles to different parishes. If this financially hurts the church...I can't say I particularly care. The children who were raped and molested were hurt a lot more.
I was a cradle Catholic. I'm sick of the church passing the buck on their history of abuse.
It's not written in the text of the bill, it's well known that Statute of limitations laws are different when bringing claims against the government. Government agencies cannot be sued unless you file an administrative claim within the first 60 days after the injury. Typically, the government will deny your claim, and will inform you of the amount of time you have to file a lawsuit.
And yes, the church has paid out millions to victims with regards to this issue already, so they can indeed be sued. If the crime was committed on church property, especially.
Indeed, where does it say public institutions are exempt. Show me that text specifically, or the text that reads this bill applies to private institutions only.
It's not written in the text of the bill, it's well known that Statute of limitations laws are different when bringing claims against the government. Government agencies cannot be sued unless you file an administrative claim within the first 60 days after the injury. Typically, the government will deny your claim, and will inform you of the amount of time you have to file a lawsuit. So I don't have to "show you" anything in the bill.
And yes, the church has paid out millions to victims with regards to this issue already, so they can indeed be sued when one of their employees commits a crime or injures someone.
One more time, this is a bill that raises the time limit to prosecute individuals for specific crimes. The perpetrator's workplace is not an issue. If a public school teacher rapes a student, they can be arrested and tried for it five years later; the same as a priest. We're talking about criminal charges against individuals.
So all of this "OMG they're targeting the private institutions and hate Catholics!" nonsense is just that. If this truly is an attack on "private institutions" why haven't we heard any opposing arguments from the Boy Scouts, Yeshivas, other private schools? Right, because it has nothing to do with this bill.
This is another case of the church pulling a persecution complex and trying to wriggle out of responsibility for its actions.
Here's the proof that you were looking for. NYT put out an article which states that this only includes religious and private schools. Now, they realized how unfair this bill is to abused kids in public schools that are now amending it to include them. The Church always supported a bill to protect children by backing Lopez bill which always included public institutions. I wonder if Gothamist were planning to mention the NYT article. That would be a balance thing to do.
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/06/04/nyregion/04abuse.html?_r=1&ref=nyregion
Hard not to find fault with his opposing this.
NO GOOD has come from any religion -happens to be directed by exclusively by males- , only death, manipulation, and oppression.
It has been the biggest tool for domination for centuries.
From Catholics, to Muslims, to Mormons, to Scientology,any of thsese scam artists merely abuse people's lack of understanding on ethics.
the Vatican has maintained a rule of secrecy on all sexual crimes (and ho knows all the others)only to keep the monopoly of power.
The Womyn Goddess already walks among us, and she will be called Oprah.
( consult your local listings )
Hopefully, the anti-Catholic bias has grown beyond just the NY State Assembly. I hope it becomes worldwide.