Catholic League president Bill Donohue comments on the latest attacks on the Catholic Church made by New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo:
Celebrating the imminent passage of the Child Victims Act, Gov. Andrew Cuomo lashed out at the Catholic Church again today.
Cuomo lamented the repeated failure of the bill to get past the New York Senate, until today. He said, “we were foiled by the conservatives in the Senate.” Then he took it back. “I don’t even believe it was the moderates in the Senate. I believe it was the conservatives in the Senate who were threatened by the Catholic Church. And this went on for years.”
Threatened? Which members of the Catholic Church threatened which members of the Senate? We need names. What was the content of the threat? This is serious business. Cuomo did not say that some politicians “felt” they were threatened by Catholics—he said categorically that they “were threatened by the Catholic Church.” (My italic.)
Has Gov. Cuomo ever blamed Asians, African Americans, Hispanics, gays, Jews, Muslims, Protestants, or union leaders for threatening politicians when they lobby for or against a bill? This is more than religious profiling—Cuomo is demonizing the Catholic Church.
“To the Catholic Church, I am, I am sorry about the situation. I’m not sorry about my position. I’m sorry they [the Catholic Church] have taken the position they’ve taken.”
Not sure what is worse—Cuomo’s dishonesty or his demonization. It was Cuomo, up until this month, who repeatedly endorsed legislation that discriminated against Catholics. Almost all previous bills that allowed for the suspension of the statute of limitations for crimes involving the sexual abuse of minors—providing a one-year “lookback” provision for old offenses—did not apply to the public schools.
Cuomo supported those bills but never, until now, has he supported any bill that would have treated Catholic and public schools equally (alleged victims of public school employees had only 90 days to file a claim but for Catholic students there was no time limit).
Perversely, Cuomo is now blaming Catholics who objected to being discriminated against on the basis of their religion for “threatening” politicians whom they contacted.
Cuomo then exploited the pope, misrepresented his position, and lied about the bishops. He said that “I’m with the pope” and that “the bishops may have a different position than the pope.”
Cuomo is not “with the pope” on marriage or on the rights of the unborn, or on a host of other key teachings. Indeed his lust for abortion rights now extends to infanticide: a child born of a botched abortion—and there will be more of them now that he is allowing non-physicians to perform them—is allowed to die on a clinic table, unattended by staff.
Is Cuomo saying the pope is “with him” on this?
Moreover, the pope has never said it is acceptable to discriminate against the Catholic Church. He has never said, nor would he support, holding the Church to one standard and the public sector to another. Only bigots do that.
It is the bishops who stand with the pope—not Cuomo.
If Cuomo is going to stick his middle finger in the face of Catholics, can he at least stop trotting out his alleged Catholic credentials (he did so again today)? My Jewish pro-life friends, who also oppose religious discrimination, are more Catholic than this man has ever been.
Contact Melissa DeRosa, secretary to the governor: melissa.derosa@exec.ny.gov
