
Washington D.C., Mar 11, 2021 / 05:00 pm (CNA).- Bishop Nicholas DiMarzio of Brooklyn says that a second sex abuse lawsuit filed against him is an attempt to destroy his reputation, and maintains his innocence.
In a lawsuit filed on Tuesday in New Jersey Superior Court, Mark Matzek of New Jersey claimed to have been abused by DiMarzio and another priest – now-deceased – at St. Nicholas parish in Jersey City in the 1970s. Metzak says the abuse occurred when he was an altar boy.
“This lawsuit contains the same false allegations made 16 months ago with a demand for $20 million,” Bishop Nicholas DiMarzio said in a statement provided to CNA on Thursday.
In November, 2019, Metzak’s lawyer Mitchell Garabedian sent a letter to the Brooklyn diocese alleging that Metzak was abused by DiMarzio. Garabedian said he was preparing a lawsuit on behalf of Matzek seeking $20 million. DiMarzio had just finished a Vatican-ordered investigation into the Diocese of Buffalo over accusations of episcopal mishandling of clerical sex abuse cases there.
After that first allegation, DiMarzio was the subject of a Vatican-ordered Vos Estis investigation, conducted by his metropolitan archbishop Cardinal Timothy Dolan of New York.
A second accuser went public in June, 2020. Samier Tadros accused DiMarzio of abuse committed in 1979 and 1980. DiMarzio said at the time that he had retained legal counsel and was considering filing a lawsuit over the “libelous” claims.
Tadros filed a lawsuit against DiMarzio in February, 2021. He said DiMarzio abused him repeatedly while he was a priest at Holy Rosary parish in Jersey City. Tadros is also seeking $20 million.
Garabedian, a Boston attorney known for representing clerical sex abuse victims, is representing both Tadros and Matzek.
He said it was “prudent” to file the lawsuit at this time, as the Vatican investigation into Metzak’s allegation could take years, according to NorthJersey.com.
“There is no merit to any of these claims,” DiMarzio told CNA. “I took a lie detector test on this matter and my conscience is clear. These false accusations are an attempt to smear my 50-year ministry as a priest.”
Garabedian said that DiMarzio’s lie detector test was not reliable and would not be admissible in court, according to NorthJersey.com.
DiMarzio said in his statement to CNA that “the priesthood has been my life” and that he has “faith in the Lord that the truth will prevail.”
Joseph A. Hayden, Jr., DiMarzio’s attorney, said that his client will “never settle this case because he is innocent” and that the bishop “looks forward to a trial before a jury of his peers.”
“Bishop DiMarzio volunteered to take and has passed a lie detector test with respect to this allegation and his categorical denial of the claim was found to be truthful by an independent retired law-enforcement polygrapher of national stature,” said Hayden in a statement provided to CNA.
Hayden said that the canonical investigation into DiMarzio was conducted “by an independent, prestigious law firm” and has been sent to Rome for further analysis and a decision. DiMarzio cooperated with the investigators, he said.
“The bishop met with the investigators and answered each and every question asked of him,” said Hayden, adding that they are awaiting the decision from the Vatican tribunal.
DiMarzio was ordained a priest in the Archdiocese of Newark in 1970. He was consecrated an auxiliary bishop of Newark in 1996, and served as bishop of Camden from 1999 until 2003. DiMarzio was installed as the bishop of Brooklyn on Oct. 3, 2003.
New Jersey in 2019 suspended the statute of limitations for civil sex abuse lawsuits, allowing for a two-year window for lawsuits to be filed in old cases of abuse.

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There is no such thing as transgender.
No one, not even the most powerful judge, the most gifted surgeon nor the most persuasive politician can physically remove the Y-chromosomes from a man and turn that man into a woman. Nor can any of the above inject Y-chromosomes into a woman to make her into a man.
Anything beyond that is mere pretense.
That being said, there is no constitutional verbiage anywhere that protects or can be presumed to protect the notion or concept of a publicly, all encompassing judicially enforced pretense.
Law is law, and make believe is make believe. Never presume to confuse the one with the other.
Otherwise, these mid-level judiciaries will be seen for what they are – a collective bunch of emperors parading around in their new clothes, to the amusement of all.
Judge Hurson is certainly an advocate for LGBT ideology and not an impartial advocate for justice. Nor does he pay regard to the overwhelming findings of studies here and abroad, Sweden and Finland among the early advocates of trans surgery who have now radically changed their position based on facts that are counter to his bias.
Following by analogy the Apostle in response to the circumcisers, Hurson, if convinced of the need for confused children to be sexually mutilated justified by the plight of adult homosexuals should castrate himself.
Dark humor aside, that perhaps judge Hurson make an extravagant gesture of support we’re within a moment of an entirely new paradigm, within which opposites have become conventional. Wherein Harry became Sally, Black White, Catholic Christianity the Church of martyrs an innocuous discussion club. What will save us Lord? Certainly the Eucharist.
That answer is increasingly manifest in new structures within the Church although not structured as adjuncts of the Church. These are among several such, the Catholic website. Not your average discussion club. Certainly not a mime of the Synod. Men of women mostly with faith some searching some skeptics worldwide when at best seeking understanding supportive drawing visions ideas solutions. A living Church within the Church that has lost its raison d’etre.