Catholic Church Backs Abusers Over Victims, Power Over Justice

Does the Catholic Church think that the injunction attributed to Jesus, "suffer the little children to come unto me," means that the Church has a right or even a duty to cause children to suffer? It certainly seems that way, especially now that the Catholic hierarchy in New York is working hard to oppose a bill that would make it easier to prosecute child molesters. The proposed Child Victims Act (CVA) would extend the statute of limitations on child sex abuse cases by five years and create a "window" of one year for all child abuse allegations, however old.

Similar measures have already been passed in other states and the Catholic Church has never supported any of them, at least as far as I know, but the active opposition in New York has been both vicious and dishonest. The Catholic Church probably isn't defending child predators against justice and the complaints of victims because they actually like child molesters or molestation — though given all the cover-ups, we don't know just how high the crimes really go so maybe I'm being a bit optimistic here.

Instead, this seems to be an effort to preserve image, power, property, and wealth because justice for the victims would be too expensive for those who aided, abetted, and covered up the crimes. At the very least, then, the Catholic Church seems to be saying to the public: "we don't want to have to pay for crimes we covered up and abetted; we're guilty and/or complicit, but we want to be allowed to get away with it."

The CVA's most active opponent is the New York Catholic Conference, the lobbying arm for the Roman Catholic bishops. (Some ultra-Orthodox Jewish groups have tagged onto the Conference, but the vast majority of Orthodox and other Jewish groups have chosen to side with the victims, as has the National Black Church Initiative.) While other state Catholic Conferences have fought such legislation, the New York group has let no ethical or humane interest stand in its way, hiring numerous top-dollar, seasoned lobbyists to try to kill the CVA through one devious approach after another. Also new in New York is the willingness of the bishops themselves to publicly rail against statute of limitations reform as though it were the equivalent of mandatory abortion.

Last fall, as the New York Post has reported, Brooklyn Bishop Nicholas DiMarzio personally threatened legislators that he would close parishes and schools in their district if they voted in favor of the CVA – in other words, if they simply took the side of child sex abuse victims on a statute of limitations bill that would publicly identify child perpetrators.

In addition, The New York Times has reported that some have alleged that DiMarzio "entered into a pact" to procure Assemblyman Vito Lopez's vote against the CVA by displacing Father Jim O'Shea, a Catholic priest and community organizer, as head of an ecumenical effort handling an affordable housing project and throwing the project to a Lopez loyalist. In return, the allegations suggest, Lopez introduced a toothless bill to extend the statute of limitations going forward by only two years, and to immunize private institutions from liability for child abuse. Fortunately, Lopez has been unable to get the votes he needs.

The Conference and DiMarzio also have tried other rhetorical tactics. They argued that the CVA was "unfair" because it excluded all public institutions from being sued – even though that was, in fact, untrue under federal civil rights statutes and state law. They also complained bitterly that the CVA was too "open-ended."

To get the bill passed, the Assembly bill was amended to meet their objections: it now explicitly covers public institutions and limits claims to those brought by survivors who are under the age of 53. The latter was a painful compromise, but was necessary, given the entrenched power and bountiful lobbying resources of the New York Conference.

Source: FindLaw

This is no idle, academic disagreement because today there are hundreds of child molesters who remain anonymous and protected by the statute of limitations. Some are or were Catholic priests and many — perhaps most? — have never had anything to do with the Catholic Church. All, however, are being equally protected by the Catholic bishops. These predators would have been revealed and perhaps brought to justice years ago if not for the pressure which the Catholic hierarchy has applied to New York politicians.

Just how much farther would the Catholic Church have to go before it would start being regarded as a criminal organization? I see Christians savage Muslim charities which are thought to send money to Islamic extremist groups, but where is the criticism of a Christian organization that spends hundreds of thousands of dollars — all donated by Catholics in the pews every Sunday — to protect child predators from justice, keeping them safe and free to commit more crimes in the future?

If any children are molested or raped by predators who have been able to remain free because of the protection the Catholic Church is providing, I think the Catholic hierarchy must be held complicit in those crimes. Because this is being made possible by Catholic donations, the Catholics who give money every Sunday are also complicity for funding the protection of child rapists and predators.