BUFFALO (NY)
Buffalo News
March 21, 2019
The Movement to Restore Trust is a panel of influential local Catholics working to suggest reforms to the church in Buffalo in the aftermath of the sexual abuse scandal that opened wounds in the diocese.
The panel, after convening six different work groups that each came up with its own recommendations, this month delivered a report with nine key recommendations for the Buffalo Diocese. They deserve to be implemented.
The nine points urge the diocese to: work with the laity to restore trust; make changes voluntarily; address the needs of survivors for support; provide full transparency into the scale of the sexual abuse; ensure “the faithful” are central to the church’s organizational structures; delegate more authority to consultative bodies in the diocese; schedule periodic reviews of implementation; engage the leadership roundtable and “revive the Spirit of Vatican II.”
Bishop Richard J. Malone would do well to see that all nine are implemented. The Vatican II ideal, according to the Movement to Restore Trust website, is that “the Church is not simply the clergy, it is not simply the hierarchy, and it is not just the Vatican or the Chancery; the Church is the people of God.”
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