The Catholic mafia at work
Speaking of fascists…the Catholic church spent 2 million dollars lobbying against a New York law that would make it easier for victims of child sex abuse to sue their attackers. Tell me again about how religion is all about compassion. Tell me again about the connection between religion and morality.
The state’s Catholic Conference has hired some of New York’s most influential lobbying firms, including Wilson Elser Moskowitz Edelman & Dicker, Patricia Lynch & Associates, Hank Sheinkopf, and Mark Behan Communications. They spent more than $2.1 million from 2007 through 2015 lobbying against the Child Victims Act and for or against other bills, according to state records.
The Child Victims Act, introduced by Democratic Assemblywoman Margaret Markey, would eliminate the statute of limitations that currently requires victims to file civil lawsuits by age 23. It would also give those who can no longer sue under current law a one-year window to file a civil suit.
And the Catholic church considers it appropriate for the Catholic church to try to block that, for self-interested reasons.
The New York Catholic Conference filings show they hired lobbyists to work on issues of “statute of limitations” and “timelines for commencing certain civil actions related to sex offenses,” among other topics. These reports come after Cardinal Timothy Dolan, head of the New York Archdiocese, was criticized for not wanting to talk about the allegations of child sexual abuse in the Catholic Church or the Child Victims Act, the New York Daily News reported in a separate story earlier this month.
Cardinal Timothy Dolan thinks it’s very unfair for news media to talk about child rape in the Catholic church at all.
“They are willing to spend limitless money in order to basically keep bad guys from being accountable for their actions,” Melanie Blow, chief operations officer of the Stop Abuse Campaign, told the Daily News. “I think they’re doing it because they don’t want to have to pay out settlements.”
In New York, the Catholic Conference has said it does not oppose victims getting justice but wants any new laws to ensure the same rules apply to both public and private institutions. New York Senate Republicans oppose the one-year window for victims who are already past the statute of limitations.
Bollocks. It wants to protect its own.
THIS kind of crap is why I left the church when I was still a believer – and why I directed a long rant at a visiting Catholic priest when I was trapped in hospital, barely able to move and wearing an eye mask because light hurt so much.
Anyone who is still supporting the church HAS to know they are supporting this despicable behaviour, don’t they?
I must say that every time I see Catholic priests or nuns around, I cast an “evil eye” at them. I don’t think all priests are abusers, but they are all part of an institution that is systemically protective of abusers. I wonder how many of them know about it? And if they don’t, why not? It’s been so prominent in the news in recent years there is no excuse for ignorance.
‘[T]he Catholic Conference has said it does not oppose victims getting justice but wants any new laws to ensure the same rules apply to both public and private institutions.’
So, for THIS instance alone, the church will interrupt its relentless demands for special privilege and immunity from civil and criminal law.
Heads: priests can rape and abuse with impunity.
Tails: priests can rape and abuse with impunity.