BishopAccountability.org

What benefits will Bishop Malone receive in retirement?

By Jay Tokasz
Buffalo News
December 10, 2019

https://bit.ly/2P8TcRz

Bishop Richard J. Malone addresses the ongoing abuse scandals plaguing the diocese during a news conference at the Infant of Prague Parish in Cheektowaga on Nov. 5, 2018.
Photo by Derek Gee

Readers posed many questions about Bishop Richard J. Malone after the Buffalo Diocese leader resigned under pressure for his handling of a clergy sexual abuse scandal in the diocese.

Buffalo News reporter Jay Tokasz has covered the crisis since it began 22 months ago, when a retired priest, the Rev. Norbert Orsolits, admitted to him that he had sexually abused "probably dozens" of boys during his career.

Below are some readers' questions following Malone's resignation on Dec. 4 and Tokasz's answers to them.

Yvonne Haymes: Shouldn’t get any “retirement” benefits!

Bonnie Pauly Serwacki: He's taking a early retirement. Big difference. A big retirement package coming his way.

What benefits can Malone expect to receive as bishop emeritus of Buffalo?

Answer: Bishop Emeritus Richard J. Malone will receive at least $1,900 per month in stipend and pension benefits, according to guidelines set forth in 2010 by the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops. The actual stipend amount could be more in 2019, because $1,900 per month was to be adjusted annually according to local cost of living increases, the guidelines said. In addition to the stipend, the USCCB guidelines recommend that a bishop emeritus receive “appropriate housing and board” within the diocese where he last served. The housing should include the use of a private chapel and housekeeping assistance, the guidelines recommended. And if the bishop emeritus chooses to live outside of the diocese where he last served, that diocese is still obligated to pay for appropriate housing and board.

It’s not clear where Malone will be living. He said in a Dec. 4 letter that he intends “to continue to live among you” and to “be available to serve in whatever ways” the temporary apostolic administrator and his successor as bishop determine is best. The News requested an interview with Malone, but diocese spokeswoman Kathy Spangler said he is not conducting any interviews at this time.

A bishop emeritus also receives health and welfare benefits, including major medical and the “full cost of medical and hospital care.” Home health care, assisted living and long-term care facilities fall under those benefits. Under the USCCB guidelines, Malone also is eligible for an office and “secretarial assistance,” paid funeral and burial expenses, an insured car, and paid travel expenses for provincial and regional meetings, USCCB meetings, ad limina visits to the Vatican, installations of other bishops and other functions that involve meeting with colleague bishops.

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Libby B. Maeder: So a few weeks ago when he was in Rome and said, swore, affirmed, attested, declared, etc., that he was not stepping down ...

Answer: On Nov. 14 at the Vatican, Rome-based reporter Chris Altieri asked Malone if there was any truth to rumors that the Buffalo bishop submitted his resignation, and Malone responded by saying “Absolutely false. Thank you very much, that's the end of our conversation." Altieri’s query came on the heels of a tweet a day earlier by Tablet reporter Christopher Lamb, who said that Malone’s resignation was “imminent” and U.S. Papal Nuncio Christophe Pierre was informed a week before of Malone’s decision to resign. Spangler also issued a statement Nov. 14 saying “we emphatically deny the contents” of Lamb’s tweet.

On the day that Malone's resignation was announced, Pierre said that Malone had asked Pope Francis to grant him early retirement while Malone and other New York bishops were visiting the Vatican, from Nov. 11 to 15.

While it’s clear something was afoot with Malone at the time of Lamb’s tweet, the exact details of how his resignation was arranged are still murky. It’s possible that at the time Malone responded to Altieri he had not yet submitted his resignation. It’s also possible that diocese officials denied the content of Lamb’s tweet at the time because of the reporter’s use of the term “imminent,” which means happening soon. “Soon,” of course, is in the eye of the beholder. Malone always has been deft at answering questions in a parsing manner, and so the diocese’s denial response could have been predicated upon the fact that Malone hadn’t yet met with Pope Francis. Another possibility is that Malone knew his resignation wouldn’t be made public until at least two weeks later.

In any case, the manner in which news of Malone’s pending resignation unfolded exemplified a lack of clarity, candor and forthrightness that critics often cited in demanding his ouster.

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Camille Stodgell: I wish he would take a few people with him & just go away far away in shame. The damage is already done. It cannot be undone ... no matter what they do!

Are any other diocese staff expected to leave when Malone does?

Answer: Auxiliary Bishop Edward M. Grosz is the person most often cited when people ask whether other Buffalo Diocese staff will be forced out now that Malone is gone. That’s because Grosz has served in a high-level chancery post since 1990, under four ordinary bishops. It’s unclear what role, if any, Grosz had over the years in the assignment of any priests accused of abuse, although ultimately that decision is made by the ordinary bishop. Advocates for clergy sex abuse survivors have long wanted to know Grosz’s role in helping keep quiet cases of abuse, especially since Grosz often reached out to victims on behalf of the diocese, while at the same time leading inquiries into clergy misconduct complaints and keeping tabs on the diocese’s “unassignable priests.”

It is interesting to note that Grosz did not attend the introductory news conference for Albany Bishop Edward B. Scharfenberger, who was named apostolic administrator for the Buffalo Diocese. Grosz turns 75 this coming February and will be required by canon law to submit his resignation to the pope on his birthday.

Some other chancery administrators have not been in their posts for very long. For instance, the Rev. Peter Karalus was appointed as vicar general and moderator of the curia, essentially second-in-command of the diocese, in September 2018, well after the abuse scandal cover-up first began unraveling. Scharfenberger already has decided to keep Karalus in his post.

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Shawn Farrell: Nice. So when will he be arrested?

Could Malone face criminal charges for any of what has happened in the Buffalo Diocese?

Answer: Sources have told The News that a federal investigation into the Buffalo Diocese’s handling of childhood sex abuse cases is still active and ongoing, but no one has been arrested or charged with a crime. Federal investigators have subpoenaed diocese records and interviewed dozens of potential witnesses. Revelations of clergy sexual abuse cover-ups similar to those now surfacing in the Buffalo Diocese have been uncovered in dozens of other dioceses around the country and rarely resulted in criminal prosecutions. In 2012, Bishop Robert W. Finn of the Diocese of Kansas City-St. Joseph became the first Catholic prelate in the country to be convicted of protecting from prosecution a priest who had child pornography. A judge found Finn guilty of a misdemeanor for failing to tell police that one of his priests collected lewd images of young girls on his computer. Finn was sentenced to two years of probation. A Philadelphia jury in 2012 convicted Monsignor William Lynn, a supervisor in the Archdiocese of Philadelphia, of covering up clergy sex abuse, but the conviction was voided on appeal in 2016.

Malone has been accused of not promptly removing from ministry three priests who were alleged to have sexually harassed adult men. One of those priests, the Rev. Arthur Smith, also had been accused of “grooming” an eighth-grade boy, although no sexual contact had been alleged. Malone also failed to reveal the full extent of historical abuses in the Buffalo Diocese. But it’s difficult to see how Malone could be prosecuted for covering up a crime. The most recent known accusation of a priest molesting a child in the Buffalo Diocese involves an alleged incident from 2001, more than a decade before Malone arrived in 2012, and no evidence has emerged to date showing that Malone actively covered up a new allegation of child abuse against a priest.

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Jason Vankos: BYE! Hope no other city gives you the chance to cover up more abuse.

Could Malone end up as bishop in another city?

Answer: It’s not impossible, but extremely unlikely for Malone to be named bishop of another diocese. Such a decision would be made by Pope Francis, not by the diocese. Malone could end working as a priest in some capacity either in the Buffalo Diocese or in another diocese. If he wants to work in the Buffalo Diocese, that decision will be made by Scharfenberger during his temporary stint as administrator or by the next bishop when he is appointed. If Malone wants to work in another diocese, the bishop of that diocese would need to approve it.




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