BUFFALO (NY)
WKBW
March 19, 2018
By Charlie Specht
In memo, Bishop Malone calls it a “very dark time”
It took a victim’s courage, a priest’s confession and a scandal that deepened by the day.
But after decades of secrecy, the Catholic Diocese of Buffalo is taking an unprecedented step toward transparency.
Bishop Richard J. Malone — giving in to mounting pressure from sexual abuse victims — announced in an internal memo obtained by the 7 Eyewitness News I-Team that Tuesday he will release the names of “all priests of our diocese who were removed from ministry, were retired, or left ministry after allegations of sexual abuse of a minor.”
Each of Malone’s predecessors — including bishops Edward Head, Henry Mansell and Edward Kmiec — refused to name suspected pedophile priests in the diocese, even after the international clerical abuse scandal first broke in Boston in 2002.
In an email to priests, Malone called the move “difficult but necessary,” acknowledging the church in Western New York is going through “a very dark time.”
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