A parish council stepped up to the plate to do the right thing. A small but significant step by laity to share in the co-responsibility of directing the Diocese of Buffalo toward Truth & healing for survivors. We were groomed to accept DOB narratives for too long. Time to take back our Church. Check out this WKBW-TV report from Charlie Specht. (Click title to read more...)
Bishop Michael Fisher's claim, “I want to be about accountability and transparency,” rings hollow. Without professional accountability for the officials we trusted to protect us, any hope of “renewal” for our diocese mired in this endless clergy sexual abuse crisis is impossible. And this crisis is here to stay as long as the bishop continues to appoint in leadership positions officials who have compromised their integrity by participating in orchestrated coverups of up clergy sexual abuse allegations. Such recent appointments of diocesan leaders only reveal a perverse continuation of the corrupt culture that promotes/protects the very officials who were complicit in enabling the crisis. (Click title to read more...)
No disrespect to the task force that said it did an “extensive examination” of the diocese, but the greatest threat to the Church is the toxic culture spawned by our leaders who created a system that ravaged lives and souls of innocent human beings. It is this very culture which enabled the clergy sexual abuse crisis to flourish in the first place. And guess what? That toxic culture is left UNTOUCHED in the proposed recommendations for diocesan renewal we were just handed.
Water down for public consumption a very serious, objectively heinous incident with diocesan priests, and you'll get rewarded by your bishop. Provide a contextual redefinition of gratuitous obscene banter with subordinates and voila! You get to be in charge of renewing a diocese mired in clergy sexual abuse. You can't make this up. But you can listen to this priest talk with the bishop about diocesan "renewal" on May 8 live online.
St. Bonaventure University's president, Dr. Dennis DePerro, was an exceptional, heroic Catholic lay leader. So why was he ignored by the very lay organization designed to help heal and restore trust in the wake of the diocesan sexual abuse scandal? On the day of Dr. DePerro's untimely death, WKBW reporter Charlie Specht revealed a disturbing backstory which gives us a clue as to why he was deliberately shunned by entrenched Buffalo-area lay leaders (most of them hand-chosen by our bishops).
Speaking truth to power “will likely come at a cost to me personally,” Deacon Paul Snyder wrote to his bishop in 2018. “However, my first loyalty is to my Catholic faith and my Community,” [not the bishop]. These frank words are an important reminder today that merely changing out a single leadership position won’t eradicate the corrupt culture that allowed the clergy sexual abuse crisis to flourish in the Diocese of Buffalo. We need leaders willing to make decisions “at great cost to them personally,” putting their Catholic faith and their Community ahead of their career.
Here's a sample of recent news media interviews Jennifer Kane, editor of LayDOB.com, has given as an advocate for not only survivors of clergy sexual abuse, but for common sense in reforming the Diocese of Buffalo.
This pulled quote from today's Buffalo News front-page article accurately quotes me. But...Let me further smash the bubble of deference to a Catholic bishop. Most laity are unified on this point: If diocesan officials cited in the AG report covered up clergy sex abuse, they need to be relieved of duty, NOT promoted. We don't trust them.
The “Diocese” didn’t betray us. People did. Until we recognize--by name and face--the true agents of betrayal, we won't be able to begin to restore trust in this diocese. Thanks to whistleblowers, we know names, faces and their horrendous professional misconduct that exacerbated the clergy sexual abuse crisis.
"... if you try to groom a child for sex, Malone will stick up for you, but if you try to stop that behavior, he’ll fire you and call you a traitor." That pretty much sums up what happened to a Diocese of Buffalo priest who acted on his moral conscience. Wait. It's actually worse than that.… Continue reading “An act of spite” keeps heroic whistleblower priest sidelined—one year later
