Lawsuits Challenge Brooklyn Diocese Over Election Calls

In a press release issued yesterday, New York City Atheists says it is suing the Roman Catholic Diocese of Brooklyn and Bishop Nicholas DiMarzio charging that the Church made Robo-calls during the last election urging voters to cast their ballot for New York State Assemblyman Vito Lopez. The suit, which will be filed tomorrow, claims that the calls violated the Diocese's tax status as a non-profit organization. The complaint asks the court to order the Diocese to surrender its tax exempt status and retroactively pay back taxes. At the same time, a second lawsuit will be filed by a priest and a consortium of clergy sex-abuse survivors claiming that Diocese support for Lopez was a payback for Lopez's key opposition to legislation that would have provided a one-year window for bringing clergy sexual abuse cases as to which the statute of limitations had already expired. (See prior posting.) That suit also names Lopez as a defendant.