Victim of sexual abuse by priest calls for diocese to open compensation to all

BUFFALO (NY)
The Buffalo News

March 4, 2018

By Anne Neville

Last week, Michael F. Whalen of South Buffalo stood outside the offices of the Catholic Diocese of Buffalo on Main Street to tell his story of sexual abuse at the hands of the Rev. Norbert F. Orsolits.

Sunday, he and his advocate, Robert Hoatson of Road to Recovery Inc., stood outside St. Louis Church, across from the diocesan offices, this time to speak up for other victims.

They criticized a deadline announced by Bishop Richard J. Malone for victims to have their complaints heard by two former judges as part of a new Independent Reconciliation and Compensation Program. The program will handle only the cases of those who reported clerical abuse before March 1, the day of the announcement.

George Richert, spokesman for the diocese, responded Sunday that people who come forward now with stories of sexual abuse would not be shut out from compensation, only from participation in this specific program. As proof, he pointed to the $1.2 million paid out in the last 20 years to people who reported clergy sexual abuse.

But Hoatson rejected that explanation.

“It’s all a smokescreen,” said Hoatson, whose New Jersey-based charity assists victims of sexual abuse. “Why not open the program to every single person who was abused by a clergyman in the Diocese of Buffalo, period? Why are they afraid to do that? Why can’t they just say, ‘Come forward’?

“Victims don’t know the day that they may have a flash that says, ‘I have to talk about this before I die,’ ” he said.

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