TORONTO (CANADA)
CBC Radio
Dec. 4, 2019
The resignation of a prominent New York bishop at the heart of the diocese’s sex abuse crisis is “not a victory,” says whistleblower Siobhan O’Connor.
Bishop Richard J. Malone of Buffalo, who has been accused of covering up or mishandling the abuse of dozens of minors by priests in his diocese, admitted no wrongdoing when he stepped down voluntarily on Wednesday, two years before his scheduled retirement.
The Vatican said in a statement that Pope Francis has accepted Malone’s request for an “early retirement.”
“It’s really not a victory. It feels more like a necessity,” O’Connor told As It Happens host Carol Off. “It’s disappointing that he chose to exit in that way, but I must say it’s not surprising,”
From ‘right-hand girl’ to whistleblower
O’Connor used to be Malone’s executive assistant, until she turned whistleblower in an explosive 2018 interview on CBS’s 60 Minutes.
“I used to be Bishop Malone’s right-hand girl and I initially was a huge fan of his. I certainly respected him and even admired him,” she told Off.
“But I began to recognize that he wasn’t the man I thought he was and that what he was saying publicly did not match what he was doing internally.”
The turning point for O’Connor came when Malone publicly released a list of 42 priests facing credible allegations of sexual assault, many of them dating back decades.
But O’Connor had a copy of his original draft list, which was 17 pages long and contained more than 100 names.
Two of the accused priests Malone chose not to name were still active in the church, she said. One of them, she says, got a ringing endorsement from Malone, despite being accused of molesting a young boy.
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