KANSAS CITY (MO)
National Catholic Reporter
Sept. 11, 2019
By Michael Sean Winters
Monday, the Catholic Herald reported that New York Cardinal Timothy Dolan was preparing to make an announcement regarding Buffalo, New York, Bishop Richard Malone. “[Cardinal Dolan] has been following the situation very closely, and has been consulting extensively,” Joseph Zwilling, longtime communications director for the New York Archdiocese told the Herald by email. “I would anticipate that we will hear something within the near future regarding this matter,” he concluded.
Malone has been embattled since last year when, on “60 Minutes,” his former secretary, Siobhan O’Connor, alleged Malone covered up cases of clergy sex abuse and provided documents that supported her allegation. Malone has denied the allegations.
This summer, there was a series of charges and counter-charges involving Malone’s handling of what he himself deemed a “love triangle.” Malone removed a pastor whom a seminarian alleged had made unwanted sexual advances on him, but a love letter from the bishop’s priest secretary to the same seminarian raised the possibility that the pastor was taking the fall. The priest secretary is now on a leave of absence as well.
The situation in Buffalo has unfolded at the same time as the universal church, under the leadership of Pope Francis, has finally taken steps to hold bishops accountable not merely for any sexual abuse they commit, but also for covering up the abuse of others. In May, the Holy Father issued the letter “Vos estis lux mundi” on his own initiative (motu proprio) that accorded metropolitan archbishops responsibility for conducting investigations into suffragan bishops against whom an allegation has been made. In a first for the ever-slow Vatican, the new law contained deadlines: Once the metropolitan requests authority to conduct an investigation, the relevant dicastery in the Vatican curia has 30 days to respond, and then the metropolitan must file a monthly report and complete the investigation within 90 days.
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