The Roman Catholic Church in New York has spent millions of dollars in recent years to stop a law that would make it easier for victims of child sex abuse to sue their attackers. The state's Catholic Conference has hired some of New York's most influential lobbying firms. 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 ... would eliminate the statute of limitations that currently requires victims to file civil lawsuits by age 23. The bill has been gaining bipartisan support in the New York Legislature, but it does not yet have enough votes, and time is running out as the legislative session is set to end June 16. The Catholic Church in the U.S. and around the world has been dealing with accusations of sexual abuse for years, and other archdioceses around the country have also spent money lobbying against child sexual abuse accountability laws, the Guardian reported. "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.
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