Chicago, Ill., Mar 11, 2021 / 07:01 pm (CNA).- The Archdiocese of Chicago announced this week the development of several new parish groupings as part of the “Renew My Church” plan.
The archdiocese announced the decision March 9 and 10. The… […]
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.
Washington D.C., Mar 11, 2021 / 04:00 pm (CNA).- A Catholic couple in Peoria, Illinois, is asking for the intercession of hometown hero Ven. Fulton Sheen to save the life of their unborn son.
Royce and Elise Hood, parents of six children including one… […]
Washington D.C., Mar 11, 2021 / 10:20 am (CNA).- The U.S. bishops’ conference praised the Biden administration on Thursday for granting special immigration status for Venezuelans to remain and work in the United States.
The Biden administration … […]
Washington D.C., Mar 11, 2021 / 08:15 am (CNA).- Sen. Marco Rubio (R-Fla.) lambasted the Chinese authorities for restricting the religious practices of the largely-Muslim Uyghur population, at a Wednesday hearing.
“When a regime deprives a peopl… […]
St. Paul, Minn., Mar 11, 2021 / 12:53 am (CNA).- A baseball card collection worth thousands of dollars was a split second away from being dropped into a trash can and disappearing forever in a landfill.Father John Ubel, rector of the Cathedral of St. P… […]
Santa Fe, N.M., Mar 10, 2021 / 07:01 pm (CNA).- The New Mexico legislature could soon pass an assisted suicide bill that is “the worst in the nation”, Archbishop John Wester of Santa Fe has said, lamenting “bills that threaten vulnera… […]
Columbus, Ohio, Mar 10, 2021 / 06:01 pm (CNA).- Several pro-abortion protesters who disrupted a pro-life Mass in Columbus, Ohio in January have been charged with misdemeanors and arraigned, with pretrial hearings scheduled for the coming months.
On Jan. 22, more than a half-dozen pro-abortion protesters disrupted the Respect Life Mass at St. Joseph’s Cathedral in downtown Columbus, where Bishop Robert Brennan was presiding at an event marking the 48th anniversary of Roe v. Wade.
Those involved, masked and holding hand-made signs, chanted slogans such as “Two, four, six, eight, this church teaches hate.” “Fund abortion, not cops,” said one of their signs. “Abortion on Demand. End Hyde Now,” said another, referring to the Hyde Amendment, which bans most federal funding for abortion.
Police and church officials escorted the protesters outside, where some protesters appeared to make obscene gestures at them. The protesters continued to chant at slogans outside the church.
Three of the protesters— two women and one man— were later charged with disorderly conduct and criminal trespass, both misdemeanors.
A fourth person, a woman, faces those same misdemeanor charges in addition to a criminal damage charge; she is set to be arraigned March 19.
All three protesters arraigned March 5 pleaded not guilty, and are scheduled for pretrial hearings in March and April, the Columbus Dispatch reported.
No arrests were made on the day of the protest, but the city attorney’s office filed the charges Feb. 18.
“We are…thankful for the proactive concern shown by our city’s leaders in supporting people of faith and their right to worship in peace and free of disruption,” Bishop Brennan said in a statement Monday.
Pro-life groups active in the state also praised law enforcement for taking action against the protesters.
“Even our pro-choice city attorney recognized that the rule of law must always apply and our churches are sacred institutions,” said Mike Gonidakis, president of Ohio Right to Life, in a statement.
“Menacing others and yelling vulgarities at a church service at which young children were present is both unlawful and unconscionable…Such displays of irreverence towards women and children practicing their faith is tragic and uncalled for.”.
The charges drew ire from several pro-abortion organizations, who say the protesters’ actions— despite taking place inside the church and taking the form of occasionally vulgar slogans and gestures— were justified.
Several of the pro-abortion organizations likened the disruptive protest that took place in the cathedral to the pro-life witness of religious people outside abortion clinics.
A group called the Ohio Religious Coalition for Reproductive Choice— a group aligned with the dissident group Catholics for Choice— said in a statement that they “stand firm in our continued support of the pro-abortion activists” who engaged in what they called “a brief peaceful protest.”
“No church can claim to be an inviolable sacred space when it abuses its power and authority to promote a political agenda and demean those seeking abortion care,” the group claimed, implying that the protest at the cathedral was, in part, retaliation for pro-lifers’ “organized sidewalk harassment at clinics throughout Ohio.”
Pro-abortion groups Women Have Options Ohio, Planned Parenthood Advocates of Ohio, NARAL Pro-Choice Ohio, and Unite for Reproductive & Gender Equity all released similar statements of support for the protesters.
Several of the pro-abortion groups cited a 2019 incident during which a rock was thrown through a window of Toledo’s only abortion clinic as evidence that pro-lifers “attack” women seeking abortions and abortion providers, despite no evidence that the rock was thrown by a pro-life protester.
“After a pattern and practice of spewing vile and hateful insults at patients, following patients to cars, and throwing rocks at a Toledo clinic these extremists claim protesting a public event is harassment,” Women Have Options Ohio said.
Peter Range, Catholic Charities of the Diocese of Toledo’s Director of the Office for Life and Justice, disavowed any violence against the abortion clinic and its patients when the rock-throwing incident took place.
CNA Staff, Mar 10, 2021 / 05:28 pm (CNA).- Global hunger has reached an alarming level and could grow worse as the COVID-19 pandemic stretches on, said Catholic Relief Services this week.The organization issued a new analysis identifying food crises in… […]
Little Rock, Ark., Mar 10, 2021 / 05:12 pm (CNA).- Arkansas is the latest state to pass legislation banning almost all abortions, in an effort to prompt the Supreme Court to revisit and overturn Roe v. Wade. Governor Asa Hutchinson on March 9 sign… […]
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