NEW YORK
Huffington Post
Michele Somerville
I wasn’t surprised to read this morning that the conduct of Democratic power broker Assemblyman Vito Lopez has finally landed him in hot water. I have been paying careful attention to Lopez, mostly in the context of his alliance with the head of the Roman Catholic Diocese of Brooklyn and Queens. (I write opinion pieces about the Church and I worship in DiMarzio’s diocese. See “Bishop DiMarzio May Not Want Your Lunch Money…” on Huffington Post. ) Nicholas DiMarzio and Vito Lopez have long been (to put it aptly) “thick as thieves.” So tight are Lopez and DiMarzio that in 2009, the latter was willing to play fast and loose with the tax law that prohibits tax-exempt churches from electioneering. DiMarzio recorded endorsements of Lopez and these were transmitted throughout Lopez’s election district as “robocalls” just before Election Day in November of 2009. (See “Heaven-Sent Robocalls…” in the November, 2009 NY Post.)
Vito Lopez has lobbied at DiMarzio’s behest, to block the passing of A5488, Assemblywoman Marge Markey’s Child Victims Act, which DiMarzio opposes on the grounds that it would bankrupt Roman Catholic dioceses. (The Child Victims Act will expand, slightly, the statute of limitations for reporting incidents of sexual assault perpetuated by adults against children.) Lopez et al have been successful in preventing the passage of A5488, and Bishop DiMarzio has expressed his appreciation by campaigning for Lopez’s political protégés within his diocese.
Maybe now that the bishop’s man in Albany is out of commission, A5488 will become law, allowing victims of juvenile sexual assault to be better able to seek just outcomes.
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