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Brooklyn Bishop Lobbies Hard Against Statute of Limitations Window

By Howard M. Friedman

Today's New York Times reports on the aggressive political advocacy by Brooklyn's Bishop Nicholas A. DiMarzio in opposition to a bill proposed in the legislature that would create a one-year window in which anyone could sue for child abuse, no matter how long ago it occurred. The provision is in one of the two versions of bills tht would extend the statute of limitations on child abuse from 5 years to 10 years. Bishop DiMarzio warns that if the one-year window is enacted, it will bankrupt various Catholic dioceses, and that parishioners will in turn reject politicians who supported the bill.

Some charge that Bishop DiMarzio entered a political deal with Assemblyman Vito J. Lopez, forcing Father James O'Shea to resign as executive director of Churches United. That group had questioned the lack of transparency in the planning process for a large urban renewal housing project in Williamsburg. Lopez headed the Assembly's housing committee that helped get funding for the project, and he also founded a nonprofit social services organization that has part of the contracts for preliminary project development work. Critics say that in exchange for the removal of Fr. O'Shea, Assemblyman Lopez introduced the competing bill that lengthened the statute of limitations in abuse cases without providing a one-time window for old claims to be asserted. Lopez denies any such deal.

Full post as published by Religion Clause on June 05, 2009 (boomark / email).