By Dareh Gregorian
March 23, 2006
A Manhattan woman says she was sexually harassed while working at a papel charity - conduct she was told she should accept as a “challenge from God."
Alleged harasser and CNEWA spokesman Michael La Civita denied the allegations and said he was "stunned" to hear of the suit.
Reinhard went to work for CNEWA, a Manhattan-based charity that does humanitarian work in the Middle East, in 2002. She was an editor for publications.
He also would refer to women as "pigs," and talked to his friends who "are into threesomes," the suit says.
Reinhard said when she complained to human resources about La Civita, she was told "not to use the word 'harassment,' " that he "was 'a man in pain' " and to accept his conduct as a "challenge from God."
She complained to CNEWA's secretary general, Monsignor Robert Stern, who said, "Why can't a woman be more like a man," the suit says. She said she was fired after that.