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Andrew Cuomo slams Catholic bishops for covering up sex abuse
By Carl Campanile
Gov. Cuomo delivered a fiery sermon against Catholic bishops Monday after delivering two new laws that infuriated them — while church members prayed for his excommunication. “Tell the truth. Jesus Christ teaches about truth and justice — social justice — and that’s not what the church did here,” Cuomo said at an Albany press conference, referring to the church’s resistance to the Child Victims Act, which extends the statute of limitations for reporting sex abuse and for filing lawsuits. After languishing for years in a Republican-controlled state Senate, the bill passed the Democratic-controlled body 63-0 Monday. The Assembly passed the bill for the sixth time since 2006, with a vote of 130-3. The governor argued that he’s on the right side of history and dogma — because Pope Francis has said that abusers should face the music rather than being shuffled to other parishes. “I think the bishops have worked to protect the church over doing justice,” Cuomo said during an interview Monday with Albany’s WAMC radio. “They compounded the problem by covering it up and not taking responsibility . . . I don’t think I’m against the Catholic Church. I think the bishops may have a different position than the pope, and I’m with the pope.” Cardinal Timothy Dolan said the governor was distorting the pope’s comments. “We have a governor that takes quotes from Pope Francis out of context to draw lines between bishops of New York and the Holy Father himself,” he said on “Fox & Friends.” Under the new law, sex-abuse victims can file criminal charges until they reach age 28 and civil cases until age 55. They had been limited to age 23 in both instances. Also, six months after the bill’s signing, victims will have a one-year window to sue regardless of how far back an offense occurred. The New York State Catholic Conference said it withdrew its opposition to the final version of the Child Victims Act because the law now applies to victims of secular predators, too. “It’s truly unfortunate that Gov. Cuomo continues to portray the societal issue of child sexual abuse as a Catholic-only problem. Thankfully, the Legislature and victim advocates understand this is not the case,” said Dennis Poust, the group’s director. “We hope this legislation gives all survivors the opportunity to be heard and compensated, wherever they were abused.” Cuomo’s comments came after Catholics spent the last week attacking him for signing the Reproductive Health Act, which expands abortion rights. Dolan called the law “ghoulish, grisly, gruesome.” “The fact that he’s a Catholic as far as I’m concerned has nothing to do with it. Any thinking human being that would want a baby, allow a baby to be aborted right up to the moment of birth … you don’t have to be a Catholic to abhor those types of things,” Dolan said on “Fox & Friends.” “Do not brag about making the state of New York the abortion capital of the world,” he added. “That is not an enlightened progressive posture.” After the new abortion law passed, Cuomo ordered the lights of the Freedom Tower to shine pink to commemorate the event. Dolan said he gets “wheelbarrows of letters” every day asking for Cuomo to be excommunicated — but said he didn’t want to make the governor a martyr. “We have a governor that uses his dissent from church teachings as applause lines,” Dolan fumed. “He likes being the … bad boy when it comes to the Catholic Church.” Asked if the governor should be denied Holy Communion for promoting the expansion of abortion, he said: “That’s kind of a pastoral issue that I think one has to talk to him about and I think proper people have, and I’d be uncomfortable going into that.”
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