Catholic Church lobbying costs spiked in Pa. as statute of limitations debate raged

The Catholic Church spent more on lobbying efforts in Pennsylvania than in seven other northeastern U.S. states combined, according to a recent report covering 2011-2018.

The analysis, called “Church Influencing State: How the Catholic Church Spent Millions Against Survivors of Clergy Abuse,” draws a connection between lobbying expenditures and inaction on proposals that give victims of sexual abuse more chances to sue.   

The lawfirms behind the report — Williams Cedar, Seeger Weiss LLP, Abraham Watkins, and the Simpson Tuegel Law Firm — represent a total of more than 300 survivors of sexual abuse across the country.

Under Pennsylvania’s reporting requirements, lobbyists don’t have to link their work to specific legislation, just broad topics.

Data available through the Pennsylvania Department of State lobbying directory, though, shows an uptick in Catholic Church lobbying in 2017 and 2018, years that saw heated debate over proposals to reduce statute of limitations protections for alleged abusers.

Out of $10.6 million spent in the Northeast and Mid-Atlantic during the time period reviewed, church officials laid out more than half in Pennsylvania, according to numbers the report authors pulled from public disclosure reports.

State totals 2011 – 2018

• Pennsylvania – $5,322,579
• New York – $2,912,772
• Connecticut – $875,261
• New Jersey – $633,458
• Massachusetts – $537,551
• New Hampshire – $134,345
• Maine – $124,260
• Rhode Island – $61,961

A year-by-year breakdown of spending by the Pennsylvania Catholic Conference, the Church’s advocacy arm, shows peaks in 2012, 2017 and 2018, topping $700,000 each of those years.

In other states, such as New York, the report draws a clearer connection between lobbying and statute of limitations legislation: “The Church spent nearly $3 million on lobbying in New York, with 80 percent of that spending – $2,329,071 – going to a Church-sponsored policy arm called the Catholic Conference Policy Group, Inc.” That group has “the sole mission of lobbying on ‘statute of limitations, legislative issues, and liability issues,’” according to the report.

State rep. Mark Rozzi, (D-Berks), himself a survivor of priest abuse, said he has seen how these funds flow firsthand. After  the House of Representatives passed a victim-friendly bill in 2016 , he says the effort to quash it in the Senate was swift.

“The Catholic Conference hired 39 lobbyists to work 50 senators and made sure our bill failed,” he said.