BUFFALO (NY)
WKBW
September 12, 2018
By Charlie Specht
Editor’s Note: This is Part Three of an ongoing investigation into Buffalo Bishop Richard J. Malone’s handling of sexually abusive priests.
Read Part One Here
Read Part Two Here
When the Diocese of Buffalo in March released a list of 42 priests “who were removed from ministry, were retired, or left ministry after allegations of sexual abuse of a minor,” Bishop Richard J. Malone billed it as a historic coming-clean of decades worth of secrets.
But new evidence obtained by 7 Eyewitness News from inside the diocese’s secret archives shows the true scope of abuse was much larger than Malone publicly let on — with a total of 106 total priests on the original draft list of accused priests.
A second internal document shows that may be understating the problem.
That document — a database of diocesan employees “who have been accused of criminal, abusive or inappropriate behavior, or who have been the victims of such behavior” — reveals 324 names, mostly priests but also deacons, nuns and lay employees.
Diocesan officials, according to internal church records obtained by the I-Team, made a series of exceptions that excluded the majority of accused priests from the final list and resulted in a much lower number for the public to digest.
The exceptions also allowed Malone, who signed off on the final changes, to publicly state that no priest accused of sexual abuse was still in active ministry — even though in multiple cases, that was not true.
“This is a cowardly way of handling this, and the Catholic Church should not be in the same sentence as a cowardly organization, but they are,” said Barry N. Covert, a criminal defense attorney who represents one of the victims. “The Catholic Diocese is not being transparent. They are hiding, they are deflecting. They are preventing the public, their parishioners, law enforcement, from learning about potentially criminal conduct against children.”
Note: This is an Abuse Tracker excerpt. Click the title to view the full text of the original article. If the original article is no longer available, see our News Archive.