BUFFALO (NY)
WKBW TV
Dec. 10, 2019
By Charlie Specht
Bishop Edward B. Scharfenberger, apostolic administrator for the Diocese of Buffalo, has talked the talk when it comes to transparency on sexual abuse.
“We can’t be afraid of reality,” Scharfenberger said last week. “We have to be able to — with sober eyes — look at the damage that was done.”
The question on the minds of survivors like former priest James Faluszczak is whether the new interim bishop will now walk the walk — and turn those words about transparency into action.
“Will he finally give to the good people of the Diocese of Buffalo a full public account of the number, the nature and the location of clergy sexual abuse in Buffalo?” Faluszczak said at a news conference Tuesday. “And will Bishop Scharfenberger cough up that information that is so needed?”
Scharfenberger’s first big test on transparency involves the issue of personnel files of abusive priests, which former Bishop Richard J. Malone staunchly refused to make public.
“I’ve said before that I will not release personnel files,” Malone told reporters in 2018. “Those are confidential in any organization, including your organizations, I assume.”
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