RESPONSE TO THE CONCERNS OF THE NY STATE CATHOLIC BISHOPS ABOUT S-5893

I wish to address this issue. Although I live in Virginia I have worked directly with many victims of sexual assault in New York State.

The response of the Bishops of New York to S-5893 employs the same misleading arguments that Catholic dioceses in other States have used in their attempts to kill such legislation. The bishops lead off with protestations of their support for legislative change and then proceed to try to create opposition to the only effective way of providing justice to victims by shifting the focus to public institutions. They also use the tired argument that old cases are difficult to prove.

This legislation is not about the Catholic Church. It is intended to help all children who may have been sexually abused by a parent, friend or employee of any private organization or institution.

The issue is a “Catholic” issue only insofar as the pattern of institutionalized abuse that has been revealed about the Catholic Church has sparked serious concern for more realistic and just legislation for the protection of all children.


The Catholic officials talk like the passage of the bill is aimed at the financial devastation of the Church. This is misleading in the extreme. The Bill is about exposing predators who have avoided such exposure because of the Statue of Limitations. It’s also about alerting any organization or institution, Churches included, that they will no longer get away with enabling sexual abusers in their midst.

The legislation will allow victims who have been excluded from the judicial process a chance at presenting their cases in court. The diocese is trying to mislead the public by equating legislation that opens the door to the court house with the court process itself. It’s up to the judge to decide if evidence is insufficient.

Everything the New York bishops claim they have done for victims is certainly praiseworthy but hardly to the point here. No diocese in the U.S. has ever done anything for victims until the civil courts and the media created such pressure that Church leaders had no choice but to respond. In other words, whatever they did they were forced to do and would not have done otherwise. The present efforts may provide assistance for some victims but the proposed legislative changes look to the future to assure that institutions that protect abusers and the abusers themselves will always know that this vile form of human destruction will never be tolerated.

Sept. 9, 2009

Fr. Thomas Doyle, J.C.D., C.A.D.C.

Vienna VA