NEW YORK
The New York Times
By SAM ROBERTS
Published: May 5, 2012
Nobody calls the cardinal’s residence on Madison Avenue “the Powerhouse” anymore. Mayors no longer consult regularly with the church about appointments to the health and Education Departments, police promotions or Family Court vacancies. Nor has any recent leader of the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of New York been called “the American Pope,” as one predecessor was.
But while decades of demographic changes have cost the archdiocese much of its political clout, it does have the newly appointed Cardinal Timothy M. Dolan to its credit. He is personable, persuasive and politically astute, and has an even bigger bully pulpit as president of the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops, which has been battling the Obama administration, with some success, over whether religiously affiliated hospitals and universities should have to provide free birth control for employees.
Still, the church has learned to pick its fights. Last year, it largely sat out the politicking that led to the legalization of same-sex marriage by the State Legislature. But, aligned with other religious groups, Catholic leaders again defeated a bill that would have temporarily lifted the statute of limitations on sex abuse cases — a threat to budgets more than to theology.
“Loss of the statute of limitations literally could have put the church out of business,” said James F. Gill, a Manhattan lawyer who has formed Friends of the Catholic Church, a coalition of former public officials and other power brokers, to lobby for legislation that the church favors, including tax credits for businesses that award scholarships to the thousands of students in parochial schools.
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