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Buffalo Bishop Resigns after Scandal over Secret List of Abusive Priests

By Sharon Otterman
New York Times
December 4, 2019

https://www.nytimes.com/2019/12/04/nyregion/buffalo-bishop-catholic-church-abuse.html?action=click&module=News&pgtype=Homepage

Bishop Richard J. Malone of Buffalo has repeatedly refused to step down.

First, a whistle-blower revealed that Bishop Richard J. Malone of Buffalo had kept files about abusive priests that he hid from the public. Then leaked recordings showed that he was reluctant to remove a parish priest whom he called a “sick puppy.”

On Wednesday, after months of pressure from priests and lay leaders, the Vatican said in a statement that it had accepted the resignation of Bishop Malone, effective immediately.

While the statement from Rome did not specify a reason behind the resignation, a second statement, from the Vatican’s office in Washington D.C., made clear that Bishop Malone had asked to retire early after being told the results of a Vatican investigation into his handling of the clergy sex abuse crisis.

Bishop Malone, in a letter to the diocese, said he had made the decision to step down “freely and voluntarily” after being made aware of the conclusions the investigation.

“I have concluded, after much prayer and discernment, that the people of Buffalo will be better served by a new bishop who perhaps is better able to bring about the reconciliation, healing and renewal that is so needed,” he wrote.

While he acknowledged making mistakes “in not addressing more swiftly personnel issues” involving behavior between adults, he also said that the turmoil in the diocese reflected the “culmination of systemic failings in the worldwide handling of sexual abuse of minors by members of the clergy” and was not his fault alone.

He said he intended to remain in the diocese in retirement, and would be available to help out in whatever ways the new bishop would like.

Bishop Malone, 73, had steadfastly maintained that he was doing well in the diocese, and said in September that he did not think he should resign. Among many Catholics in Buffalo, where Bishop Malone was approaching persona non grata status as the scandals continued, there was a palpable sense of relief this week that the Vatican investigation appeared to have forced him to reconsider.

 

 

 

 

 




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