ALBANY (NY)
The New York Times
By ANDY NEWMAN
Published: January 4, 2006
ALBANY, Jan. 3 - Lawyers for dozens of men and women who say they were molested by Roman Catholic priests asked the state's highest court on Tuesday to compel church officials to answer the charges even though they date back decades.
The lawyers, appearing for more than an hour before the State Court of Appeals, said that Catholic Church officials in New York shuffled priests from parish to parish to keep their serial abuse hidden, falsely assured some victims that abusive priests had been removed from the ministry, and paid off other abuse victims to keep them quiet.
All of this, the lawyers said, was aimed at staving off lawsuits until the statute of limitations had expired. Such a scheme, the lawyers said, should disqualify the church from invoking the statute now.