BUFFALO (NY)
Buffalo News
March 9, 2019
By Jay Tokasz
The Buffalo Diocese must do more to assist clergy sex abuse survivors and to disclose the depth and scale of abuses perpetrated on children and vulnerable adults, according to an organized group of Catholic worshippers.
Those are among nine key recommendations from the group, which has been meeting since December to find ways of rebuilding trust in the diocese in the wake of a clergy sex abuse scandal that has rattled the faithful.
The group calling itself the Movement to Restore Trust urged Bishop Richard J. Malone to offer one-on-one and group listening sessions with sex abuse victims, as well as a full spectrum of “independent, trauma-informed counseling services, treatments and therapies” and a more sensitive and responsive intake program.
The recommendations were released Saturday morning in a five-page executive summary distributed at a symposium in Canisius College’s Montante Center.
The report said a lack confidence in the institutional Catholic church and its leaders has resulted in lay people “feeling disillusioned, frustrated and alienated.” It also called for transforming church culture from one that assigns greater authority to ordained clergy to one where clergy and bishops work in partnership with lay people.
“The embrace and implementation of the recommendations in our report will be an important step in breaking old habits driven by clericalism,” the report said.
The group called upon Malone to commit to a new type of partnership with lay Catholics so that they are not just represented, but are also consulted, heard and engaged.
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