Democrats have declared war on the Catholic Church, with new laws that threaten to bankrupt Catholic schools, hospitals, charities and parishes. Thus far, the worst attacks have come in New York.
“We’ve taken a lot of hits this year,” Dennis Poust, spokesman for the New York State Catholic Conference, the policy arm of the state’s Catholic bishops, tells Newsmax. “Outside the government, the Catholic Church is the largest provider of health, human services and education in the [New york]. But some legislators are so driven by malice that they’re willing to see our charities and schools go under.”
The Empire State’s Democrats are attacking on three fronts.
A proposal to require all hospitals to perform abortions, or lose their state license would put Catholic hospitals out of business.
Major funding cuts for Catholic schools by Gov. David Paterson, who continues to force the parochial schools to run state-mandated programs at their own expense.
An effort by Democratic lawmakers to abolish the statute of limitations on sex abuse lawsuits against the Church, allowing people to sue over decades-old cases in which the alleged perpetrators are dead.
The proposed sex-abuse law applies only to private institutions such as the Church and the Boy Scouts. Public schools are exempt. Yet sex abuse is more common in public schools than in private institutions.
"The physical sexual abuse of students in schools is likely more than 100 times the abuse by priests”, concluded a 2002 study by Hofstra University scholar Charol Shakeshaft. It estimated that 6 to 10 percent of U.S. public school students had been sexually abused by teachers and school employees.
An Associated Press investigation found that 485 “moral misconduct” charges were brought against New York State teachers between 2001 and 2005, most involving sex.
By contrast, new charges of sex abuse against Catholic priests in New York numbered “less than 10” during that same five-year period, says Poust.
Given these findings, the Child Victims’ Act of New York (Assembly Bill Number A.2596) seems strangely off the mark. First introduced in 2006 by Democratic state assemblywoman Margaret Markey, the bill is scheduled for a committee vote next week, to determine whether or not it will go to the assembly floor.
The bill targets private entities such as churches, but exempts government entities such as public schools. Under current law, a person who was abused as a minor can file suit up to five years after turning 18.
The new bill would suspend that five-year limit. It would open a one-year window, during which anyone could sue the Church – or other private entities – for alleged abuse going back 60, 70 years or more.
A similar law passed in California in 2002 produced so many lawsuits that the Church could not afford legal defense. It settled hundreds of cases, no matter how dubious the evidence, paying out more than $1 billion dollars.
Democrats hope for a similar bloodletting in New York. Markey’s current bill is modeled on the 2002 California law.
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newsmax.com/newsfront/democrats_catholic_church/2009/02/28/186763.html))
