BUFFALO (NY)
WBFO NEWS
Dec.4, 2019
By Beth Adams
Nazareth College history professor Timothy Thibodeau, who studies the Catholic Church, says it’s hard to know what long-term effects the resignation of Bishop Richard Malone will have on the Buffalo Catholic Diocese.
The Vatican ended weeks of speculation Wednesday when it announced that Pope Francis had accepted Malone’s resignation after widespread criticism from the former bishop’s staff, priests, and the public over how he handled allegations of clergy sexual abuse.
“It’s not a surprise,” Thibodeau said of the resignation. “I think what’s surprising to me is why it took so long.”
Pressure on Malone to step down was intense.
In the past year, two key members of Malone’s staff went public with concerns about his leadership, including his former secretary, the Rev. Ryszard Biernat, who secretly recorded Malone calling a then-active priest “a sick puppy,” but taking no immediate action to remove him.
Earlier, his executive assistant, Siobhan O’Connor, had leaked internal church documents after becoming concerned that Malone had intentionally omitted dozens of names from a publicly released list of priests with credible allegations of abuse.
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