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US Catholic church has spent millions fighting clergy sex abuse accountability
Key Excerpts from Article on Website of The Guardian (One of the UK's leading newspapers)


The Guardian (One of the UK's leading newspapers), May 12, 2016
Posted: December 11th, 2017
https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2016/may/12/catholic-chu...

The US Catholic church has poured millions of dollars over the past decade into opposing accountability measures for victims of clergy sex abuse, according to state lobbying disclosures. The lobbying funds have gone toward opposing bills in New York, Pennsylvania, New Jersey and Maryland that would extend statutes of limitations for child sex abuse cases or grant temporary civil windows for victims whose opportunities for civil action have already passed. In Pennsylvania, house representative Mark Rozzi, who was abused as a child by a Catholic priest, has led a campaign to extend the age before which child abuse victims can bring on cases. In New York, assemblywoman Margaret Markey is pushing to grant a temporary one-year window for those whose statute of limitations has already expired. Many child sex abuse cases are done gradually, under the guise of love or sex education, and so what happens is most victims dont even realize until literally decades later, said David Clohessy, a director with the Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests. Since 2007, the New York bishops lobbying arms have poured more than $1.1m into issues associated with timelines for commencing certain civil actions related to sex offenses. During this same time period, bishops conferences spent millions on lobbyists in states where the church is actively opposing similar legislative proposals. Opposition efforts ultimately thwarted statute of limitations reform efforts in those states.

Note: Read more about the Catholic church's effort to prevent victims of child sexual abuse from seeking justice. For more along these lines, see concise summaries of deeply revealing sexual abuse scandal news articles from reliable major media sources.


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