And now DiMarzio comes to sprawling Brooklyn from Camden. He has a heartwarming past of helping immigrants. But when it came to dealing with the great failure of the church, the molesting of children by priests and bishops, his record shows him to be empty and mean. In Camden, DiMarzio wept for victims. Then he had lawyers in court attack victims as if they were refuse. Last year, my friend Nancy Phillips of the Philadelphia Inquirer sent me an account of DiMarzio's lawyers attacking a victim.
I saved it and bring it out today promptly and thus prominently. Bishop DiMarzio's lawyer asked the victim whether he became aroused when a priest fondled him, whether he ejaculated when the priest performed oral sex on him, whether he had masturbated as a teenager and asked him detailed questions about his intimate relationship with his wife.
Judge John G. Himmelberger, Jr., of Atlantic County Superior Court, moodily ruled for the church. He then said, "Even though the church was in its legal rights to vigorously defend itself, it seems to me that the church's position in this litigation is at odds with its stance as a moral force in society. From where I sit, playing legal hardball doesn't seem quite right."
Breslin August 2, 2003
