Rozzi bids farewell after tumultuous speakership

(The Center Square) – Rep. Mark Rozzi held the gavel just one last time on Tuesday.

The Berks County Democrat, first elected in 2012, bid farewell from the speaker’s podium in the House of Representatives, where he reflected on the traumatic path that led him to Harrisburg.

A survivor of clergy sexual abuse, Rozzi emerged as a leading advocate for legislative reform, especially after a 2018 grand jury report revealed the scope of the problem: 1,000 children victimized by more than 300 priests across six Catholic dioceses in Pennsylvania.

But before the investigation, there was former state Rep. Mike McGeehan, a Philadelphia Democrat who advocated for statute of limitation reforms for childhood sexual abuse survivors. The 23-year veteran of the lower chamber was speaking at a rally in 2011 when Rozzi had a revelation.

“I knew it was at that point that I was coming back to this place because there was just few legislators that were there supporting McGeehan and I knew that I had to find a way back to make a difference, to be a victim here, to do what was right,” he said.

And come back he did.

During his third term in 2019, Rozzi was at former Gov. Tom Wolf’s side when he signed legislation that eliminated the statute of limitations for criminal cases against alleged abusers. The two-year window for civil suits, however, was yet to be done.

Rozzi came close to making it happen. When the current legislative session opened in January 2023, an ill-fated deal to install the Democratic representative as a temporary independent House speaker went askew.

Meanwhile, the narrowly divided chamber gridlocked over operating rules. Rozzi, as speaker, wanted a special session to pass the civil litigation window, though Republicans in the Senate preferred a constitutional amendment – as well as two others for universal voter ID and regulatory reform.

Forever at odds, session in the lower chamber stalled out for more than two months, until Rozzi stepped aside for current House Speaker Joanna McClinton, D-Philadelphia.

The tense chapter, however, didn’t feature in Rozzi’s seven-minute speech.

“It really was a journey and I’m glad though that this journey is coming to an end and the next chapter is empty and I can write whatever I want to,” he said before aiming his final remarks at his Democratic colleagues. “Keep forging on, keep doing what’s right, peace out.”