BUFFALO (WBEN) - Following the release of controversial Bishop Malone audio tapes on Wednesday morning, the bishop held a press conference that afternoon to explain his side of the story, and he said that he believes he has the support of most Catholics withing the Diocese of Buffalo.
Of course, that statement struck a chord with many. On Thursday afternoon, members of the laity held yet another protest outside the diocese on Main Street to demonstrate their feelings regarding the current state of affairs.
And as the quiet protest was happening on the sidewalk, the Movement to Restore Trust announced it was asking for the Bishop to resign.
When asked for a response from the Bishop, the Diocese of Buffalo provided the following statement: "
Bishop Malone received word from the MRT organizing group earlier in the day. Due to his full schedule today, which included Mass and a gathering with members of the Bishop’s Council of the Laity, we are unable to issue a statement this evening, but will soon."Some members of the laity are holding a prayerful protest across the street from the Buffalo Diocese, and they’re all demanding that Bishop Malone resign. @NewsRadio930 pic.twitter.com/4hWdeyP5a9
— Brendan Keany (@BrendanKeany)
September 5, 2019 "We are taking a stand against the corrupt diocesan leadership we are under - under Bishop Malone - and also in support of survivors of clerical sexual abuse," said Siobhan O'Connor, a prominent diocesan whistleblower. "In particular, we are here because Bishop Malone seemed to be calling on the laity yesterday when he talked about how he believes that the majority are in support of him, and he may be speaking to more of those people or surrounding himself with those people, but we represent those who are very much not in support of his leadership."
O'Connor then called out the Movement to Restor Trust, as they had been silent following Malone's controversial press conference.
"I'm extremely concerned about them," she began. "I've been trying to give them the benefit of the doubt, to some extent, thinking that this is a new endeavor; this is something that they aren't fully aware of what to expect perhaps, but after the listening sessions, and now after this week...they've yet to say anything, and they've yet to have any kind of statement, and to be honest, that's the end of me trusting them to do any good."
Following is a complete statement from the organization:
Members of the Organizing Committee of The Movement to Restore Trust (MRT) contacted Bishop Richard J. Malone Thursday, asking that he resign immediately.This was a very difficult decision that was arrived at following lengthy prayer, reflection and discussion.
MRT is the independent organization of concerned, committed Catholics of the diocese, formed in 2018 to assert the laity’s rightful role in the Church and to help lead a movement to restore trust and confidence in the Church in the wake of public disclosures about the diocese’s handling of clergy sex abuse cases. In the past nine months, MRT has hosted symposia and coordinated the production of a 68-page report detailing its blueprint for reform.
We make this request of Bishop Malone with a degree of humility and sadness. We had embarked upon our work with the hope that we could be a catalyst for reform and the restoration of trust of the faithful in the diocese. While we have made some progress toward that goal by working with Bishop Malone and the Joint Implementation Team, recent events and disclosures have led us to conclude that the diocese is at a critical point and that further progress is not possible. We believe that continuing to press forward under these circumstances jeopardizes MRT’s comprehensive reform agenda and compromises our ability to be agents for positive change.
Our decision to ask Bishop Malone to resign was not made lightly and as we have pointed out in the past, the sex abuse scandal in the diocese dates back several decades, long before Bishop Malone arrived here. But it is also true that he has not handled current cases properly and as a result, there is a substantial risk of harm to the diocese and the good works that the Church does in this region.
MRT believes that the Vatican should appoint a temporary diocesan administrator, a priest with no ties to the Diocese of Buffalo, while it considers the appointment of a permanent Bishop of Buffalo. We will be making our views known to Cardinal Timothy Dolan, archbishop of New York and metropolitan for the Ecclesiastical Province of New York, which includes all eight Catholic dioceses in the state, and to the Apostolic Nuncio to the United States, Archbishop Christophe Pierre.
Our goal remains justice and healing for the victims of sex abuse and the restoration of trust in Christ’s Church. In order for our Church to move forward, and for the good of the diocese, the time has come for new leadership - leadership committed to openness, transparency, and co-responsibility with the laity.
We look forward to developing a rapport with the next spiritual leader of the Buffalo Diocese in order to get the process of reform back on track as soon as possible. The MRT report contains very rich material that provides a roadmap for the next leader of this diocese.
At this time, we are formally pulling back from all of our commitments with the diocese until the bishop resigns. For that reason, MRT will not be participating in the next diocesan Listening Session scheduled for Wednesday, Sept. 11.
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Nancy Nielsen is a member of the Movement to Restore Trust, and she went live with WBEN to discuss the thought process behind the decision.
"I think it's no surprise that that the events of the last few days have become a tipping point where we really felt that the diocese is now in such a critical state that, at this point, we believe new leadership is necessary," said Nielsen. "We were actually quite pleased that the bishop was willing to embrace some of the reform agenda that we had put forward, but there comes a point where someone simply becomes such a lightning rod for controversy that effective leadership isn't possible anymore..."
