New York City, N.Y., Sep 11, 2019 / 10:59 am (CNA).- Amid calls for his resignation, Bishop Richard J. Malone of Buffalo remains firm in his conviction not to step down from office, even as Cardinal Timothy Dolan of New York assesses whether to open an investigation into Malone’s alleged mishandling of abuse cases.
“Cardinal Dolan has been following the situation in Buffalo very carefully. He is aware of his responsibilities under Vos estis lux mundi, he has been consulting extensively both with individuals in Buffalo, including Bishop Malone, clergy and laity,” Joseph Zwilling, communication director for the New York archdiocese, told CNA in a Sept. 10 interview.
“He has been in touch with the nuncio, and with the Holy See. So he has been remaining on top of it, and I expect that we will hear something, some development sometime in the near future,” Zwilling continued.
Malone took the reigns in Buffalo in 2012. Though no allegations of abuse have been made against Malone, he has recently faced accusations of mishandling or covering up accusations of clerical sexual abuse by priests in the diocese.
Vos estis lux mundi, Pope Francis’ new norms which came into force in June, puts “metropolitan” archbishops in charge of investigations into suffragan bishops, with authorization from the Holy See required.
The motu proprio also calls for an investigation into “actions or omissions intended to interfere with or avoid civil investigations or canonical investigations, whether administrative or penal, against a cleric or a religious.”
In this case, Cardinal Timothy Dolan of the Archdiocese of New York is Malone’s metropolitan archbishop.
“I can’t tell you exactly when, or what the development will be, but I would expect there to be some kind of development in the near future.”
A Buffalo lay group called the Movement to Restore Trust (MRT), which Malone considered an ally after it formed in 2018, on Sept. 5 joined the call for Malone’s resignation.
MRT is calling for the Vatican to appoint a temporary diocesan administrator with no ties to the Diocese of Buffalo while considering the appointment of a permanent bishop.
“Bishop Malone was looking forward to continuing to cooperate with the MRT and regrets that the work will now have to be done without their assistance,” the diocese said in a subsequent statement.
Malone has admitted that he has made mistakes in the past, but denies any criminal wrongdoing and says he will not resign.
Of what is Malone accused?
At least two whistleblowers with high-level access in the diocese— Malone’s former executive assistant and former priest secretary— have gone public with accusations that Malone mishandled several cases of sexual abuse by priests in the diocese, some of which involved minors.
One such case is that of Father Fabian Maryanski, whom a now 50-year-old woman accused of sexually abusing her beginning when she was 15. She reported the abuse in 1995, but a letter from the victim’s attorney seemed to suggest that the woman was in her twenties when the abuse occurred.
The diocesan victim compensation panel found her story believable and offered her compensation, but Bishop Malone said last year that there was still confusion about whether the victim was a minor at the time of the abuse.
As of Jan. 2019, Maryanski’s name was not included on the diocesan page of credibly accused clergy, but it has since been added. Maryanski was removed from ministry last year.
In another case, Father Robert Yetter garnered three sexual harassment complaints. Malone and Grosz reprimanded Yetter, and placed him on “voluntary leave,” WKBW reported late last year. Because the case did not involve minors, the diocese does not publicly list Yetter’s name.
Malone has also faced questions about his handling of the case of Fr. Art Smith, whom Malone’s predecessor Bishop Edward Urban Kmiec placed on leave in 2011, after the mother of a boy at St. Mary of the Lake school complained that the priest was sending inappropriate Facebook messages to her son.
Malone reinstated Smith to ministry in 2012, after the accused priest spent time in a Philadelphia treatment center, according to an investigation by local news station WKBW.
“Maybe I could have looked at it in a different way,” Malone said last November.
“We had decided with Art Smith— because, again, the Facebook incident did not rise technically to be sexual abuse— to keep him in some limited ministry,” Malone told WBEN.
Malone pointed out that he did not again assign Smith to a parish setting. Despite this, the WKBW investigation revealed that while working in nursing home, Smith heard confessions at a diocesan Catholic youth conference attended by hundreds of teenagers in 2013. There were also reports of inappropriate conduct with adults in the nursing home.
“That backfired, too, because even sending him to work in a nursing home…nothing happened with children, but there were some inappropriate actions with adults. So we were dealing with him, but not in a way that I would do now. I admit my failure there,” the bishop said.
He also signed off to allow Smith to become a chaplain on a cruise ship in 2015, and the bishop said now he is “kicking [himself] for that.”
Smith is currently listed on the diocesan page for clergy with substantiated claims of sexual abuse of a minor.
Malone has since suspended a number of clerics, including in Nov. 2018 a young priest from south of Buffalo for alleged sexual misconduct with an adult woman. Most recently, on Sept. 7, the diocese announced that allegations of abuse of a minor against Father Louis S. Dolinic had been substantiated and the priest would remain on administrative leave while the Vatican made a final determination.
In August 2018, WKBW published an investigative report revealing that Malone’s former executive assistant, Siobhan O’Connor, leaked internal diocesan documents to the press which suggested that Malone worked with diocesan lawyers to avoid releasing publicly the names of some diocesan priests accused of misconduct.
Several of the allegations involved boundary violations or sexual misconduct against adults, meaning that the diocese was not required to take action against them in the same way that it would allegations of sexual abuse of minors, under the 2002 Charter for Protection of Children and Young People.
Malone said that while he sought to follow the Charter’s requirements, he “may have lost sight of the Charter’s spirit, which applies to people of all ages.”
O’Connor has been continually calling for Malone’s resignation.
“Be truthful with us, Bishop Malone. Put an end to this toxic secrecy and painful silence,” she wrote in a Nov. 4, 2018 op-ed in The Buffalo News.
“And, if you love us, begin the process of allowing new episcopal leadership to come to our diocese.”
In Sept. 2019, WKBW released recordings of private conversations between Bishop Malone and Fr. Ryszard Biernat, Malone’s former priest secretary, which appear to show that Malone believed sexual harassment accusations made against a diocesan priest months before the diocese removed the priest from ministry.
Biernat recorded the conversations as the bishop discussed how to deal with accusations against Fr. Jeffrey Nowak by then-seminarian Matthew Bojanowski, who accused Nowak of grooming him, sexually harassing him, and violating the Seal of the Confessional.
In an Aug. 2 conversation, Malone can reportedly be heard saying, “We are in a true crisis situation. True crisis. And everyone in the office is convinced this could be the end for me as bishop.”
In one conversation from March, Bishop Malone seems to acknowledge the legitimacy of Bojanowski’s accusation against Nowak months before the diocese removed Nowak from active ministry.
Despite this assessment, Nowak was not removed from ministry until Aug. 7, one day after the seminarian’s mother accused Malone of allowing Fr. Nowak to remain in ministry despite the allegations against him.
Biernat says he made the secret recording after Nowak became jealous of Biernat and Bojanowski’s close friendship. According to a conversation taped Aug. 2, the bishop was concerned that media coverage would focus on a possible “love triangle” between Nowak, Bojanowski, and Biernat.
Biernat also says he was a victim of sexual abuse by Father Art Smith. He alleges that Auxiliary Bishop Grosz threatened to halt his ordination as a priest and have him deported to Poland after Biernat complained in 2004 to Buffalo Diocese administrators that he was sexually assaulted by a priest, according to The Buffalo News.
Grosz has since “categorically” denied the claim.
Reaction in Buffalo
Malone is remaining firm that he will not step down. He reiterated his conviction that he will remain as bishop in a Sept. 6 interview with WBEN Radio.
A lay-led petition calling for his resignation has garnered nearly 10,000 signatures as of press time. A number of clergy have written open letters to local publications calling for Malone’s resignation.
Father Robert Zilliox, of St. Mary’s Catholic Church, drafted a letter in early September calling for Malone and Auxiliary Bishop Grosz to resign.
“We, the People of God that constitute our diocese, are angry, hurt, and in need of authentic, humble, sincere and holy spiritual leadership. We believe that despite your good work in the past you are no longer able to provide that leadership,” the letter reads, as quoted by WKBW.
In mid-August 2019, twenty-two plaintiffs filed a lawsuit against the Diocese of Buffalo, a province of the Society of Jesus, multiple priests, eight parishes, three high schools, a seminary, among others, alleging “a pattern of racketeering activity” that enabled and covered up clerical sexual abuse.
The lawsuit was filed on the first day of a legal “window” allowing for sexual abuse lawsuits to be filed in New York even after their civil statute of limitations had expired.
Among the plaintiffs, who have not been publicly named, are several alleged victims of clerical sexual abuse. The lawsuit alleges specific instances of sexual abuse by priests, and claims that the diocese failed in its duty of care towards children by allowing abusive priests to have contact with minors through parishes and schools.
Calling the diocese and affiliated organizations an “association in fact” for the purposes of federal racketeering laws, the suit alleges “common purpose” in “harassing, threatening, extorting, and misleading victims of sexual abuse committed by priests” and of “misleading priests’ victims and the media” to prevent reporting or disclosure of sexual misconduct.
[…]
Another whack job with a token catholic look but underneath the sulphuric emissions are all too real! Lord, come back soon!
This woman is a troublemaker, as is Francis. Whenever people use the word “extreme” to describe ideas other than their own, I conclude that they’re into demonizing those with whom they disagree. I pray for the Pope’s successor that he will be a faithful Catholic.
The Pontiff Francis believes that “his-reform,” (which is “the-evil-spirit-of-vadigun-too”) is halfway to its goal, which is, as the woman “Ms-Caram-of-Argentina” represents, the “new-pagan-church-of-sacramental-sodomy.”
These above understand their duty to protect and defend the serial-sex-abusers of their cult, like “Rev.” Rupnik. He must remain free, to send a message to the “rigid, childish, backwardist” pewsitters, who the ruler of their cult is, and that The Beast who rules the world, is likewise their Occult Lord and Mistress.
calling myself an evangelical catholic I have to concur with many of your views. In Ireland which has lost most of its catholic ethos some of us who are sinners still recognise our sins but we certainly do not condone sin. And that is what homosexaulity is. A disbelief in Hell is another popular perception at present. It is a dangerous one and of course is aimed at the young who remain so vulnerable because of the society they have been brought into.
Utterly unsurprising. The Pope has surrounded himself with shallow revolutionaries and heretics for many decades. He is comfortable among them because he is one of them. We become like the people we choose as friends. Pray for all of them, and those who parrot their lies.
Amen!
Poor judgment by Pope Francis in his guest selections, at the very least! He’s not protecting Catholic teaching.
Yes, yes, yes.
Has he ever? He is as bad as the rest of them and probably way worse
Arguing for gay marriage, denying the existence of hell, defending abortion, vilifying the moral code laid down in the Bible — and Bergoglio meets with her? Encourages her?
Never mind hell. Will the Catholic Church exist once Bergoglio’s diabolical papacy is finished?
Our Lord said the Gates of Hell will not prevail for a reason, and He did not say how close they might come. Pope Paul saw the smoke. We are seeing the flames.
And he enables Rupnik while booting Strickland and Burke.
Appalling.
Here’s a story idea for CWR:
Bergoglio is the worst pope in how many hundreds of years?
Was there ever a Borgia as bad as this?
How about Stephen VI? John XII? Boniface VIII?
I would love to see how our own Bergoglio stacks up with some of the worst billing in Church history.
Worst popes. Not worst “billing.”
(Sigh.)
. the listing of the name of a performer, act, or the like, on a marquee, poster, handbill, etc., esp. in regard to prominence: got top billing.
(I think he meant the prominence relationship/top tier as far as billing, perhaps)
It appears the cult of faux katholics is not to be undone…
When Pope Francis welcomes and talks to clergy who has opposing Catholic views than the Church, shows us that he is tolerant, it doesn’t mean that he agrees with their views and/or life styles. Wouldn’t Jesus do the same? However, Jesus would probably correct them gently and would tell them to sin no more.
I also wonder what Pope Francis reaction would be with very Orthodox and/or traditional Catholics. I assume that he would be kind too. Isn’t this what Jesus would want from the Pope, and/or one of us?
Therefore, let’s stop speculating what the Pope’s intentions are when he welcomes clergy who disagree with Catholic doctrine. However, that’s not easy to do, and I think the Vatican should explain what the objective of these meeting between the Pope and controversial Catholic clergy.
The Vatican needs to be more transparent in this area and many others!
That’s exactly the problem – Francis has marginalized orthodox and traditional Catholics, used all sorts of pejorative names to describe them, dismissed them from their positions and refuses to meet with them. That’s how fair and open minded this pope is and why some of us have chosen to ignore every utterance of his.
When has he had anything but praise for the actual heterodoxy of the heretics and insults for loyal Catholics?
Dominican Sister Lucía Caram espouses heresy through her Spanish media outlet and Pope Francis encourages her to continue. Not the garden variety topics like Fiducia Suplicans. Rather the high toxic variety like freedom to commit abortion [a freedom she says God cannot object to because of the very gift of freedom], Catholic Church homosexual marriage, non existence of hell.
When the Holy Father visited Athens a Greek Orthodox priest famously shouted, Papa! Eísai Hairetikós. Pope! You are a heretic. We know that canonically he’s not, because the formal canonical conviction requires adamancy and consistency. Francis knows that and avoids it. However, what Gk Orthodox Fr Ionis shouted is what much of the world believes. If not the heretical condemnation, at least the predilection of beliefs. The planet has become largely heterodox insofar as Christ’s revelation and Catholic moral doctrine.
Diabolic in its etymological Gk form means to disrupt, to break apart. If there is a clear, unambiguous policy identified in this pontificate it’s to dismember, to break apart the unity that existed and that distinguished Catholic Christianity through the centuries.
“We know that canonically he’s not, because the formal canonical conviction requires adamancy and consistency. Francis knows that and avoids it.”
In the sport of wrestling, the action is considered in bounds so long as any part of either wrestler’s body remains with the circle that defines the boundary. Many wrestlers have scored points by having only the tops of their shoes inside that area. Francis is constantly drifting out to the perimeter, ever so careful to leave one toe in, as he continually shoots ankle picks on matters than he wishes to pin.
Perhaps it’s better to remain completely in bounds when the referee is the Almighty and might recognize a transparent attempt to stall or flee the mat.
A really good, humorous analogy. Wonder that he knows he can fool a lot of us but not God, then what is his game? The presumptive answer isn’t pleasant. A reason why I offer my prayer with deep intent at the, Recordare, Domine, Ecclesiae tuae toto orbe diffusae, ut eam in caritate perficias, una com Papa nostro Francis.
That’s una ‘cum’ Papa nostro Francis. Cum, meaning with, referring to unity, which is where the disruption is. The literal dismembering of the Body of Christ.
Those who criticize the Pope and sister need to get their Bibles out and read between the lines. Jesus came for all of us not just for those christians who are perfect.
“Those who criticize the Pope and sister need to get their Bibles out and read between the lines.”
Deep. But what about those who criticize those who criticize the Pope and sister?
You too may choose to read. Rev. 21:1-8. Then ask the Holy Spirit’s help to figure out where you may be found in the book.
So it’s a mere “imperfection” for a nun or an American President to promote abortion and for a Pope to praise them for such devotion to such a world view? And there it is an objective evil to criticize cold-blooded moral indifference to this greatest crime in human history?
He did not come for the righteous is how I understand it.
Obviously you’re the one who did not get your Bible out. And if you did you probably did not read it.
Go on. Start reading.
Just when you might think that anything could not get worse with this papacy—another new mess.
Sister Caram has the right to preach a gospel. It’s just not, undeniably, the Gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ. It is a gospel with no hell, ergo no real need for repentance and conversion. I’m OK, you’re OK.
She has a right to advocate for her version of a church. It is just not, undeniably, the Church of our Lord Jesus Christ. It is rather a church that surrenders to the secular culture on abortion, pornography and just about everything else. A church destined for irrelevance because if a church does identify with the secular culture, who then needs it?
We read, for example: “In 2014, she told La Opinión de Málaga online news that ‘those who freely make the decision [to abort] have to be the people [involved]. The Church cannot meddle in there. Not even God, who made us free for a reason’.”
Consider the abruptness, totality and irreversibly of being (ex)terminated even before we see the light of day. Sometimes with a scissors through the skull in a late-term abortion. Small wonder that Pope St. John Paul II identified abortion as an “unspeakable crime.”
But, hey, in bizarro-world Sister What’sername ingests face time with the papacy she despises.
We notice that in another posting today, one of the issues for the next Synod and for the earlier working groups is “the mission in the digital age.” https://www.catholicworldreport.com/2024/03/14/pope-francis-study-groups-to-examine-10-synod-on-synodality-themes-through-june-2025/
Fraud-alert! These two have chosen nomenclature to connote a St. Pope Francis and a St. Sr. Lucia! Instead of fraudsters, let us think on our dear Lord Jesus and his good true saints who also suffered fraudsters. These two shall pass as shall we. Some will die twice but others only once. Good Christian soldiers, stand guard and stay strong through the blood of Christ.
Then I saw a new heaven and a new earth, for the first heaven and the first earth had passed away, and the sea was no more. And I saw the holy city, new Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God, prepared as a bride adorned for her husband. And I heard a loud voice from the throne saying, “Behold, the dwelling place of God is with man. He will dwell with them, and they will be his people, and God himself will be with them as their God. He will wipe away every tear from their eyes, and death shall be no more, neither shall there be mourning, nor crying, nor pain anymore, for the former things have passed away.”
And the who was seated on the throne said, “Behold, I am making all things new.” Also he said, “Write this down, for these words are trustworthy and true.” And he said to me, “It is done! I am the Alpha and the Omega, the beginning and the end. To the thirsty I will give from the spring of the water of life without payment. The one who conquers will have this heritage, and I will be his God and he will be my son. But as for the cowardly, the faithless, the detestable, as for murderers, the sexually immoral, sorcerers, idolaters, and all liars, their portion will be in the lake that burns with fire and sulfur, which is the second death.
Rev. 21:1-8.
You folks would probably consider me on the lunatic fringe of Catholicism, but even I think Religion Digital is over the line. As a Franciscan we try to live – Gospel to Life, Life to Gospel. Not easy for some Catholics to accept.
Peace my friends
Next time, just tell us you think whatever you embrace makes you better than the rest of us.
Have you ever found yourself thanking the Almighty that you aren’t like the rest of the rabble?
“You folks would probably consider me on the lunatic fringe of Catholicism…”. Cease wondering. Yes, I do. Not even on the fringe. More, I have metaphysical certitude that the OSF has little to do any more with St. Francis of Assisi.
“If any are found who…are not Catholics, let all the brothers, wherever they may have found such a one, be bound through obedience to bring him before the custodian of that place nearest to where they found him. And the custodian is strictly bound by obedience to keep him securely day and night as a prisoner, so that he cannot be taken from his hands until he can personally deliver him into the hands of his minister. And the minister is bound by obedience to send him with such brothers who shall guard him as a prisoner until they deliver him to the Lord of Ostia, who is the Master, the Protector and the Corrector of this fraternity.”
The Testament of St. Francis
Ah, how Catholic media so quickly adopted woke-speak as put forth in the woke bible “style book”….this sister and her pals are only “controversial”, not heretical.
Anything inside the Church today which flaunts ancient teaching and scripture is only “controversial” and not heretical.
And then folk wonder why Catholic media seems to be so ineffective in helping staunch the tidal wave of the “controversial” swamping the Church, and same with pronouncements by hierarchy.
It really is time for the villagers to gather and remove the threat of the Jesuit vampires.
“Continue fighting for this living Church…”🤣 Brilliant! Reads like St. Basil the Great! More like drivel from the formation manual of the Berkeley Jesuits. 🤦🏼♂️
Not that it’s wrong in itself for the Pope to meet with simpatico atheists…(Does this pontificate believe that anything is objectively wrong?)
Yes, plastic straws and backwardist rigidity (i.e., virtually anything that smacks of orthodox Catholicism).
After promising long ago never to go there again, I made myself google “Berkeley Jesuits.” The front page of the Jesuit School of Theology is actually worse than the rubbage of this pontificate. I had to put a mask on to read it! 😷
Living Theology. [I’m alive!]
Transforming Our World. [I’m a transformer!]
The most dynamic and rigorous learning occurs at the intersection of scholarship and culture. [I’m intersecting!]
Health Advisory Alert: Find Covid-19 announcements and resources from JST here. [I’m distancing!]
Find Your Purpose [I’m on purpose!]
Dear Fool!
You’ve had this disordered order and its pathetic prelate pegged from the beginning.
Now you reveal that there is actually a googlable page for ‘Berkeley Jesuits.’
I would never have believed it. I mean, talk about redundancy!