ALBANY (NY)
Advocate
March 21, 2018
By Trudy Ring
Cardinal Timothy Dolan, the famously anti-LGBT Roman Catholic archbishop of New York, is arguing against pending state legislation that would offer a window for survivors of sexual abuse to sue over crimes that happened decades ago.
Dolan made an unannounced visit to the state capitol in Albany to urge lawmakers and Gov. Andrew Cuomo not to support a “lookback” provision in the Child Victims Act, which would give survivors a one-year period to bring suits over decades-old incidents of abuse.
“Lookback would be toxic for us,’’ Dolan told reporters after meeting with politicians, the New York Daily News reports. He added, “The lookback we find to be very strangling because we unfortunately have precedent. When that happens the only organization targeted is the Catholic Church.’’ The church and other organizations, such as the Boy Scouts of America, have warned of a flood of litigation during the lookback period. He said he is not opposed to other moves that would make it easier for abuse survivors to bring the perpetrators to justice, such as easing the statute of limitations.
Abuse survivors and their advocates quickly struck back at Dolan. “Is it a lookback or priest raping kids that is toxic? I’m just trying to figure out which causes more damage to society,” Kat Sullivan, who was raped by a teacher at her private school in 1998, told the Daily News. “I think the words of a man who knowingly impedes a bill that would provide due process to citizens currently being excluded should be ignored because he represents an institution that not only violated children but actively worked to cover it up a
Note: This is an Abuse Tracker excerpt. Click the title to view the full text of the original article. If the original article is no longer available, see our News Archive.