Mark Rozzi, advocate for sex abuse survivors and former House speaker, is leaving politics to focus on his mental health

Mark Rozzi got into politics to give survivors of child sex abuse such as himself a voice in Harrisburg.

But after 11 years serving in the Pennsylvania House, including a brief stint last year as House speaker, the Democrat from Reading is leaving politics less hopeful than he was when he started.

Rozzi, 52, quietly ended his auditor general campaign in December and told The Inquirer he has spent the last few months isolating himself during a particularly difficult bout of depression, a yearslong struggle caused by being sexually abused by a Catholic priest when he was a boy. He’ll serve the remainder of his term before leaving office at the end of the year.

“A lot of times, my mind and body is stuck in that of a 13-year-old boy, and it’s hard to get out of that hole,” Rozzi said in an hour-long phone interview, through tears. “I have to look at it through a 52-year-old man’s brain and say, ‘You were 13. You didn’t know what was going on.’”

Rozzi said he chose to share his disillusionment with state politics and details about his depression to tell fellow clergy abuse victims that he’ll keep working for them — and to encourage them to get the help they need.

After leaving office, Rozzi said, he’ll work on his mental health. As he finishes his term, he’ll also help the campaigns of his ex-wife, Jacklyn Rusnock, who is running for his House seat, and Joe Khan, the former Bucks County solicitor running for attorney general — both of whom helped him through his latest depressive episode.

And he said he’ll spend the remaining months of his term trying to pass statute of limitations reform that would allow victims of childhood sex abuse to sue their abusers and the institutions that protected them. Lawmakers must approve a constitutional amendment by this summer for it to be a ballot question in November, or the process will have to start from the beginning and could take years before it goes to voters.

”The only thing I can see is what’s in front of me right now: to heal Mark,” Rozzi said. “I will be good to nobody if I don’t put myself first right now and just focus on my health.”

Rozzi is among thousands of clergy abuse survivors in Pennsylvania, many of whom were counted as part of a landmark 2018 grand jury report that found more than 300 priests in the Roman Catholic Church across six dioceses sexually abused children. Rozzi accepted a settlement from the Diocese of Allentown a few years ago as part of its compensation program for victims and would not be eligible for any benefit under any changes to the statute of limitations, he said.

He was elected to his House seat in 2012 and has been a key player in pushing for a two-year window for victims of childhood sexual abuse to pursue civil action in cases for which the statute of limitations had already run out. He ascended to the speaker position last January, when three vacancies left Democrats lacking the majority they needed to seat their choice. Rozzi struck a deal with Republicans to serve as an “independent” speaker, and he used that platform to fight for child sex abuse survivors.

But his nearly two months leading the chamber ended with little progress on the statute of limitations legislation. The House, under Rozzi, passed the legislation for the fourth time in six years, but the bills have sat untouched in the GOP-controlled state Senate.

Since then, Rozzi has returned to his spot as a rank-and-file member of the Democratic caucus, which controls the House with a one-seat majority. After stepping down as speaker, Rozzi started a run for state auditor general that never really took off. He’s expected to endorse State Rep. Malcolm Kenyatta (D., Philadelphia) in the race on Wednesday.

In November, Rozzi said the familiar feelings of depression crept back in. He was unable to get out of bed, and spent most days crying or revisiting his abuse. He remembered his friends and fellow clergy abuse survivors who died by suicide.

“I started thinking: Maybe I am a failure. Maybe I am that garbage that is on the curb. I’m never going to be healthy in my mind,” Rozzi added.

Rozzi said he is now receiving outpatient treatment and eye-movement desensitization therapy for depression and post-traumatic stress disorder. He is now hopeful for his future again, he said.

“I know we have a tendency to try to bury things, and we want to pretend it doesn’t exist and just go on suffering,” Rozzi said. “But we suffer the consequences of it. Our families suffer the consequences of it. It’s OK to talk about it, we all struggle.”

Rozzi said painting is an outlet to process his emotions, and he plans to continue that hobby.

Child sex abuse survivors have been trying for more than a decade to get a two-year window opened to pause the statute of limitations so they can pursue civil action.

But at every turn, they’ve been let down. First, the state Senate refused to consider the legislation. Then lawmakers struck a deal to put a constitutional amendment before voters, but the Department of State failed to advertise it correctly. Now, the Senate has refused to pass a stand-alone amendment unless it includes voter ID requirements and regulatory changes — and it needs to pass by this summer or the clock will be reset once again.

Rozzi blames Senate President Pro Tempore Kim Ward (R., Westmoreland) for breaking a promise to get this done.

“They’re playing with the lives of these adults who have been [sexually] assaulted,” he said. “Whether they were abused at church, public schools, or by their families, these kids deserve justice.”

Ward declined to comment.

Democratic Gov. Josh Shapiro, who released the 2018 grand jury report as attorney general, maintains that the statute of limitations is one of his top priorities this year.

Rozzi is still proud of the wins he has gotten for victims. In 2019, then-Gov. Tom Wolf signed a law that eliminated the criminal statute of limitations for child sex abuse survivors to come forward and extended the statute of limitations for some child abuse victims to file civil suit. It also created a state fund for sexual assault victims to pay for therapy.

As of 2019, childhood sexual abuse survivors have until they are 55 to file civil suit, and there is no statute of limitations for most criminal childhood sexual assault cases. But these changes were made for cases going forward, which advocates say blocks many adult victims of childhood sexual abuse from getting any closure to their decades-old cases.

Rozzi said he hasn’t given up on the constitutional amendment, but said he’d like to apologize to other survivors that it hasn’t gotten done yet.

He added: “I have given everything that I have possibly had, in my heart, in my soul.”