BUFFALO (NY)
Buffalo News
November 8, 2018
By News Editorial Board
Bishop Richard J. Malone embarked on a media tour recently, doing interviews with print and broadcast media and last Monday holding a news conference in Cheektowaga to discuss the clergy sex abuse scandal.
Malone vowed to do a better job of being open about the diocese’s handling of the issue, saying that transparency begins with him. The prelate’s steps toward openness are welcome, but aren’t likely to relieve the pressure on him to step down or to change the way the diocese conducts business. Both of those outcomes need to happen.
Malone told the news conference the diocese has been overwhelmed by “a tsunami” of new claims of child sex abuse. The diocese added 36 priests’ names to a list of clergymen credibly accused of abuse, bringing the total to 78.
Apart from Malone’s displays of resolve and contrition, there has also been a misbegotten media counteroffensive from the diocese and its communications team, including a press release questioning the credibility of Siobhan O’Connor, the former assistant who leaked confidential diocesan documents about clergy abuse to a TV station and discussed her actions on the CBS news magazine “60 Minutes.” The diocese press release attempted to smear her for what it said were “embarrassingly contradictory” comments by O’Connor but which, in fact, were a reflection of a believer torn by genuine affection for Malone and revulsion at his actions.
That’s the kind of messaging we expect from political candidates. The fact that it came from a chancery shows how the unfolding scandal has rattled the diocese.
The 72-year-old bishop is in a tough spot, being in some cases forced to answer for crimes of abuse committed decades before he arrived in Buffalo. However, some of his statements about the diocese’s handling of priests accused of abuse still don’t ring true.
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