Charlie Specht WKBW -- Fall From Grace: When priests prey and bishops betray (2018)

the Diocese of Buffalo has embraced secrecy and that secrecy has bled shame it's really a torturous type of thing the time for thinking about doing the right thing is done it's now time to actually do the right thing the diocese hospice knowledge they could and should protect children now and they should do so you've been here for a few years now why have you never released these names to the public there are many reasons for that that's the that's the policy I inherited the head of the Buffalo Catholic Diocese releasing the names of local priests this morning priests who were removed from the ministry because of credible child sex abuse allegations there are 42 names on the list this move reverses five decades of secrecy the Buffalo diocese has placed this active priest father Dennis Ryder on administrative leave as it looks into allegations of child sex abuse Wednesday the diocese said three of its priests were guilty of abuse four others would be newly investigated he was thought of as a God he was thought of as you know do no wrong the tentacles of that pedophile they have touched every part of my life my being while the clergy sexual abuse scandal and the Diocese of Buffalo exploded on his watch Buffalo Bishop Richard Malone has claimed to be different from the bishops before him who covered up the abuse that's a situation I have inherited well of course this all predates my arrival in the diocese I don't know all those details we have been going about this whole thing when you know when an allegation comes in in an entirely different way than it was done in in decades past what hundreds of internal church documents obtained by 7 Eyewitness News show that in the case of one priest Richard Malone not only returned that priest of ministry after a previous Bishop removed him but ignored three new allegations against that priest misled others about that priests history and repeatedly put him around young people despite clear warnings from parents the 7 Eyewitness News i-team has produced dozens of stories on the more than 80 priests and nuns who have been accused of sexual misconduct in the last six months the stories have given voice to victims but they've also exposed a pattern of how the Catholic Church and Buffalo treat allegations of sexual abuse in 2011 Father art smith caused a controversy as st. Mary of the Lakes School in Hamburg when he sent a Facebook message using the words love you to an eighth-grade boy the boy's mother along with st. Mary's principal Christine hider took their concerns to the diocese saying in an internal memo that Smith was known by students as the creeper and showed signs of grooming and stalking the young boy hider the principal wanted him gone from the school and that with auxilary bishop Edward Grolsch who today plays a key role in the church's response to the abuse crisis hider said grosse got up from his seat and said a father Smith quote I thought he was better Edward chemic who was Bishop of Buffalo during that time suspended Smith from the parish announcing that Smith was taking a medical leave Hyder declined to be interviewed for this story but according to the principal father Smith refused to stay away from the school showing up outside a classroom in March 2012 the principal fired off a letter to the diocese saying this man is a predator and a groomer of young children something needs to be done as school principal I feel the students in grade 8 have been injured and troubled by the actions of this man more than originally thought what a Smith's career looked to be in jeopardy then it would soon get a resurrection with the arrival of a new bishop in Buffalo in August 2012 tonight officially has a new Catholic bishop Bishop Malone is now the 14th Catholic bishop of Buffalo father art Smith began making inroads with new Bishop Richard Malone immediately writing him a letter from a church run treatment center for priests in Philadelphia where the Buffalo diocese sent him for rehabilitation after the incident with the eighth grade boy I would like to attend your installation as my new bishop smith wrote requesting a meeting with malone to talk about quote the progress I have made and the skills I am learning later in a diocesan communication obtained by the i-team Smith described the Facebook contact with a student as quote inappropriate but said he honestly believed it to be innocent and friendly the assistant attorney teri Connors wrote that quote father art is minimizing the Facebook incident but in November 2012 bishop malone returned smith to ministry and what he would describe as a quote lower profile position as chaplain of brothers of Mercy nursing home in Clarence Smith Rota bishop Malone a month later saying thank you kindly for redeeming me and giving some life back to me in 2013 Smith heard confessions at the diocese annual Catholic Youth Conference at the N was Mark hotel which left hider the principal at st. Mary's incredulous in two letters to Bishop Malone she wrote if a teacher would have been grooming children and had inappropriate relations with a minor they would have been fired and lost their license to teach yet a priest that has a history of inappropriate contact with the youth was among the youth ministering the sacrament of reconciliation Malone wrote back to her and stressed that he assigned Smith two brothers of Mercy because it was a quote lower profile position in the diocese and because the incident with the 8th grader was not technically a violation of the American bishops zero tolerance policy adopted in 2002 but if Bishop alone thought that father art Smith could do no harm to young people at a nursing home for the elderly he would be proven wrong yet again in October 2013 the regional superior of the brothers of Mercy wrote to Bishop Malone to report that Smith had somehow found two young men at the nursing home and had inappropriately touched them both one man aged 19 worked in the dietary department and reported inappropriate remarks and touching the other a 25 year old seminarian reported inappropriate touching in the sacristy after miss we were willing to take a chance with father art the superior are the brothers of Mercy wrote to Bishop Malone but due to his inappropriate conduct with employees we must terminate father Smith's work on our campus at that point the bishop push Smith to go back to the treatment center in Philadelphia a record show he initially refused just get rid of me Smith wrote to the bishop and an email obtained by the i-team destroy me I will not subject myself to that torture again privately the bishop wrote to his advisors this response shows the depth and gravity of arts issues if we cannot convince our to go to Saint John Vianney the treatment center he will be placed on the of an assignable priests meanwhile father Smith in August 2014 wrote a letter to Pope Francis where he cast himself as a victim and again said he served for 42 years without incident my canon lawyer says that there is absolutely no foundation for the way the church has treated me he wrote to the Holy Father later in an email to one of Malone's aides he mentioned that he has retained both civil and Canon lawyers and wrote they know I was done a severe injustice documents show bishop malone estimate to honor their gentlemen's agreement that he not wear clerical garb offer sacraments or say Mass publicly when the sexual abuse crisis exploded in Buffalo earlier this year malone said the protocol on abusive priests was clear and sometimes in the past and we know this is a mistake now they would the verdict would be they can return to ministry you know we would never do that now what he didn't say then is that in May 2015 despite documented allegations of Smith's behavior documents show he met with the embattled priest to discuss the possibility of beginning to reintegrate your priestly ministry in the Diocese of Buffalo despite the priests history Malone granted Smith permission to administer the Eucharist and to hear confessions in another letter he offered him my gratitude for your service to our diocese as he was says various priests and local parishes meanwhile Smith's letter to Rome had worked its way through the Vatican which wanted an explanation from bishop malone in a 2015 letter to the Vatican's investigative agency bishop malone was on the defensive saying he had good reason to hold smith from ministry because of smith's grooming of the young boy and the fact that he checked himself out of the treatment center after only a day under my watch as diocesan bishop Malone wrote contrary to what father Smith stated in his letter he once again faced boundary issues he mentioned the 8th grader from Hamburg and the two men Smith reportedly touched and brothers of Mercy then the bishop revealed two more encounters by Smith that were never made public a 2004 incident at a city parish where father art seemed to groom a seminarian to get his affection in a 2013 incident at Millard Fillmore Suburban Hospital in which a 30 year old male patient complained that Smith was caressing his forearm of the 2004 incident the bishop wrote one night the seminarian recounted an incident where father art came to his room came into his bed and began to touch his genitalia then after telling the Vatican why father Smith appeared to be so dangerous Bishamon inexplicably ended the letter by saying on the basis of his cooperation in regard to regular counseling I have granted father Smith faculties to function as a priest in the Diocese of Buffalo despite what he said to the Vatican about Smith's long history just two months earlier but shall Malone wrote psmith a glowing letter of recommendation to the Apostleship of the sea cruise service endorsing Smith to be a chaplain aboard a cruise the bishop made no mention of Smith's history and writing quote he's a person of good moral character and reputation I know nothing which would in any way limit or disqualify him from this ministry I am unaware of anything in his background which would render him unsuitable to work with minor children bishop Malone then wrote the same letter of recommendation the following year last year after five years of kemal that included three new allegations of sexual misconduct Bishop a loan granted Father art Smith his wish of returning to a parish Jazz's and records showed the bishop a sign Smith to Blessed Mother Teresa parish in de PUE where he lives to this day even after being suspended last month when yet another allegation of sexual misconduct was reported to the diocese and substantiated we've learned that officials on a cruise ship this summer arranged for father Smith to be removed from that ship when they read our news stories about Smith's recent suspension but back home in the Diocese of Buffalo Smith's bedroom is located next door to an old Catholic elementary school which now houses a preschool it's directly across the street from the de PUE Lancaster always in girls club I have a deep respect for the virtues of piety and obedience Kyle is a devout faithful Catholic from Buffalo which is why it almost pains him to tell the story of father Robert yetter a longtime pastor of st. Mary's in swarm Ville who five years ago offered Kyle what was supposed to be a helping hand this was my first opportunity to be able to really ask him some deep questions about the faith so that I could get some answers for what I was searching for it was 2013 and Kyle was 25 when Father yet her took him to see a movie at the Walden Galleria we were like lately laughing about something that was you know mildly funny and and then he just kind of finished the laughter with uh and then just slaps his hand right here my first reaction was to freeze I'm this 25 year old straight guy and never really been in this situation and I knew if my own dad did that I wouldn't be okay with it Kyle says yet or kept his hand on his inner thigh for 30 to 45 seconds I went from you know freeze to fight and I and I snapped I said would you stop touching me and he like freaked I was like whoa oh I'm sorry I was just disgusted and confused about why this was my first interaction with a priest outside of a parish ever instead of turning away from his faith Kyle turned to it becoming a leader in young adult ministry after becoming a member of a faith community Kyle in April of last year finally found the strength to come forward you have to report this you have a duty as long as you have the fortitude to do so because you might not be the only one Kyle wasn't the only person to come forward to report sexual advances by father yetter to the Diocese of Buffalo to other young men also told the diocese that they witnessed similar experiences with the priests but hundreds of internal church records obtained by 7 Eyewitness News show that bishop Malone and those who work for him allowed Yetta to remain a pastor at a large parish with little consequences for his actions they also took steps to withhold this information from the public victim number two was the second young man to allege misconduct by father yet err he's too embarrassed to give his name and we're withholding that name and also Kyle's last name to protect their privacy he said he was 19 when yet her offered to help him through a challenging time they had dinner and wine at the st. Mary's rectory before yet her according to the official complaint submitted to the diocese reached over hugged him and started kissing him on the neck chin and cheek church records show the victim reported the priest tried to kiss him again while using his hand to grab his pants zipper and genital area another time yet her allegedly took him to a casino offered him alcohol and started kissing his neck and pushed him onto a chair before he was able to get away the victim said two of his other friends had similar experiences with the priest the diocese does not appear to have tracked them down in both cases the diocese called yet her in for a meeting with auxilary Bishop Edouard Roche Rachelle Malone's point man for the abuse crisis so bishop grouse my auxiliary bishop meets with regularly with priests who are unassigned bull for various reasons according to internal memos yet are admitted to the touching in the movie theater but said he didn't remember the incident in the casino grossest solution was to give yet her a lecture on sexual harassment using this chart man will show he referred yet her for counseling and in both cases reviewed the file with Lawler Quinlan along with Terry Connors does a legal work for the church soon after the allegations records show the cases were considered closed as for punishment yet her in September 2017 rota gross to say he plan to travel to Haiti on a mission trip as part of my penance and in case the diocese had any thoughts about removing him yet her ended the letter with a veiled threat any pastoral changes at st. mary's would be sensitive I think as parish is number two in the diocese for contributions to upon this rock the diocesan capital campaign second or third in assessments or the annual tax parishes paid to the diocese and seventh in fundraising for Catholic Charities by the first day of 2018 father yet was planning the terms of his own retirement including a trip to Venice Italy he told Bishop Malone he planned to serve as pastor until November of this year the bishop he prays and the toys accused priest allow me to take this opportunity to express my sentiments of gratitude and appreciation for your years of faithful and effective ministry Malone wrote since you are a priest forever I am certain that God's people will continue to enjoy your pastoral care as you minister to them when and where you are able in your retirement years but the very next month another complaint was sent to the diocese written by a third victim this one anonymous it does not appear the diocese was able to identify the victim a 1 month later the abuse crisis in the Diocese of Buffalo exploded sources tell 7 Eyewitness News the diocesan leaders considered father yet are for inclusion on the diocese list of accused priests but the diocese removed him before releasing the final version in March which did not sit well with Kyle knowing that yet her was not on the list and seeing my own diocese that I had put in countless hours of service for in many different capacities to be telling everybody that this stuff the priests the abuse is a thing of the past that everybody on this list is no longer in active ministry or deceased this is a problem of yesterday how do you even do that when they know and they have documentation that people like me had gone through what I had gone through one possibility is that the church treats cases like Kyle's and that of victim number two differently because both men were over the age of 18 and therefore did not technically fall under this Charter written by American bishops in 2002 to deal with sexual abuse even though it was by another man who made a vow to God whose 50 years older than me dad doesn't have to be reported apparently if I did that and my job I'd lose my job I potentially be facing jail time on the first incident period in Buffalo these cases are handled by the diocesan review board a group of mostly lay Catholics who are appointed by the diocese Church Attorney Quinlan in an email gave bishop Malone some insight into why that board didn't give yet or much of a punishment he wrote quote there was some concern that father yet or should not be treated more harshly than other priests who have been accused by adults of offensive or sexual contact memo showed bishop malone went to see father yet or himself on june third celebrating Mass with the priest and mentioning the victims concerns he totally downplays any evil intent the bishop wrote in an internal memo he says his hand was on Kyle's thigh only momentarily if that response bothered the bishop he didn't give any indication and a follow-up letter six days later when Malone wrote to the priest to thank him for his quote generous gift the Bishop told Yetta it was a joy to be with you and wrote be assured of my ongoing prayers and best wishes for you and your priestly ministry that may explain why our email to the diocese on July 5th asking whether there were any allegations against father yet er sent the bishop and his staff scrambling this does not strike me as transparent I wrote to the diocesan spokesman a cover-up of adult sexual misconduct is still a cover-up in the interest of transparency can you please clear this up publicly the diocese gave no response but privately bishop malone replied we have no obligation to report to SPECT or anyone else an adult misconduct allegations he then wrote to Bishop gross please call Bob to alert him to this inquiry spec may well call Bob about this so he should be prepared and remind him that we still want him to go for an assessment the assessment refers to an evaluation the bishop ordered father yet or to undergo 10 months earlier sources say no one ever followed up on that directive until we sent our email after the email bishop grouse wrote that it is imperative to get father yet or to Southdown as soon as possible referring to the church front treatment center in Canada where the Buffalo diocese for years has sent its accused priests for rehabilitation in light of our questions documents show father yet or moved up his retirement date to September 1st and Kyle will once again be able to attend Mass at st. Mary's he said he wasn't able to have his wedding at his childhood parish found out with bishop Malone in June of this year and says the bishop told him that he was father yet his only victim but documents show at the time of that meeting the diocese already had the complaints of victim number two as well as a third anonymous victim on file they also show bishop malone was made aware of these complaints by a diocesan lawyer who gave him an update before that meeting in that spirit I asked bishop Malone so you're saying that I was the only one he said yes I've reviewed his case you're the only one that's come forward so knowing what I know now and it's not true I can't see that any other way then that he lied to me and it's not good for a bishop to break the eighth commandment well leaders from across Western New York are calling on the Catholic bishop of Buffalo Richard Malone to resign his post today after our two-part I team investigation into the continued cover-up of sexual abuse in the diocese a buffalo these leaders say the bishop has no credibility and must step aside for the church to move forward and public trust to be restored bishop malone knowingly and repeatedly put people in the catholic church and in particular children in harm's way when he decided to protect a group of predators instead of trying to help a group of victims by reintroducing these priests into parish communities where they were viewed as men to be trusted and people who could form close relationships with he's complicit in the carnage that they brought about and he should have resigned his post they've not handled it well and and I think it's clear when you see the documentation that directly contradicts the assertions that this bishop made about not reassigning priests in to ministries in close proximity to kids why would there not be an opening up of our doors of the church to let all of the independent investigations come in so that these victims can be treated fairly this church can be cured of this plague and we can be allowed to heal as a community no one was told we could have done nothing about this until we read your reporting new developments tonight connected to the ongoing church abuse scandal New York's Attorney General now issuing subpoenas to every Catholic Diocese in the state it's all part of the ongoing investigation and how the eight diocese is handled and possibly covered up allegations of sexual abuse involving children today's move comes only two weeks after our explosive I team investigation uncovering the Buffalo bishops handling of sex abuse allegations tonight the 7 Eyewitness News i-team reveals a list of priests accused of sexual misconduct that was concealed by the Buffalo diocese never met to see the light of day good evening the lists quite different from the one release to the public by the diocese back in March that lists contain 42 names the secret list has more than 100 in his exclusive report 7 Eyewitness News i-team chief investigator Charlie speck details tonight the length the diocese went to in order to hide this list from your eyes when the Diocese of Buffalo in March revealed a list of 42 priests who were removed from ministry were retired or left ministry after allegations of sexual abuse of a minor Bishop Richard Malone billed it as a historic coming clean of decade's worth of secrets victims often find themselves kind of liberated and empowered to come forth that they'd not yet come forth if they see in print the name of their abuser but new evidence obtained by 7 eyewitness news from inside the Diocese Secret Archives shows the true scope of abuse was much larger than Malone publicly led on with a total of Matt 42 on 106th accused priests on the church's original draft list but a second internal document indicates that may be understating the problem a database of diocese and employees who have been accused of criminal abusive or inappropriate behavior or who have been the victims of such behavior reveals 324 names mostly priests but also deacons nuns and lay employees records show church officials made exceptions that allow them to remove the majority of accused priests from the final list that resulted in a much lower number for the public to digest and it also allowed bishop malone to say that no accused priests was still in active ministry even though in multiple cases that was not true in addition to the 42 accused priests Malone identified in March records show church leadership had full knowledge of another 64 accused priests whose names were removed before the list was made public 25 of them were religious order priests like Franciscans and Joe Jewett's 19 were diocesan priests who were dead but accused by as the diocese put it only one victim and 20 more were accused but kept off the list because they did not fit the dioceses carefully crafted criteria for disclosure the Catholic Diocese is not being transparent they are hiding they are deflecting they are coming up with their own excuses internal excuses by these categories there's no categories there's allegations and if there are allegations it should be investigation being conducted very covert is an attorney representing a victim of father Fabian marianski Stephanie McIntyre was a 15 year old at st. Patrick's Church and Barker when she says marianski began seven years of abuse that not only robbed me of my youthful innocence but destroyed my family McIntyre hired a lawyer and reported the abuse to the diocese in 1995 the diocese suspended marianski but returned him to ministry in 2000 and he was assigned to a church in Clarence until recently when creating the list of 42 accused priests Vasa sent officials wrote we did not remove him from ministry despite full knowledge of the case and so including him on the list might require explanation that is as cowardly of a document and an entry as I could ever imagine there we have an adult that was a child when she was abused the appropriate thing to do would be to not only remove him but try to investigate and see whether on top of my client there are other victims out there that he is abused instead bishop malone let marianski continue in ministry and Nativity of the Blessed Virgin Mary Church in Clarence until May 6 when McIntyre told her story to the Buffalo News reporter Jay toke has said Malone told him he was not aware the allegation against marianski involved a minor but diocese and records obtained by the i-team show Church lawyers inform alone about the marianski case when he first became bishop in 2012 that entry was part of a confidential 300 page black binder of diocesan secrets that includes stories of sex abuse theft and other pending matters inherited by the bishop when he took office marianski initially denied the allegations to the news but then admitted he had sexual relations with MacIntyre but after she was an adult this week he again denied the allegations - 7 Eyewitness News but the document prepared for the bishop by diocesan lawyers specifies that she says she was 15 when the abuse started father Marianne skis faculties were temporarily suspended and he was on leave from the diocese the document states he has since been returned to ministry what the heck was he doing at my parish why did the bishop let him come to my parish and serve and nonetheless of parish with a Catholic school it makes no sense to me Bill Ogilvie is a father of three whose daughter was an altar server with Mary Ann ski at Nativity he was shocked and angered to learn that bishop Malone allowed the priest to stay in ministry without notifying the parish I never would have allowed my daughter to serve on the altar with with a priest who had these sort of allegations in his past it's so far beyond ridiculous it's so hard to believe that these things are actually happening in May Olga V wrote a letter to bishop Malone seeking an explanation he says he never got a response and sees this as a sign that Malone has not been transparent he had the opportunity to do that when he released those original 40 names that obviously should have been quite a bit more quite a few more names but because he didn't do that because he still shrouds the diocese in secrecy he has done no favours to any of the constituents within his diocese but mariyinsky isn't the only presa diocese kept off its list for Watauga VCS as questionable reasons NASA sent officials kept another current priest off the list because he quote credibly denied the claims made by a woman that the priest made her son's parade around in their underwear well then they gave a more urgent reason for not disclosing the obligation to the public he is still functioning as a pastor and so should not be on the list another priest Father Joseph R Apple who was accused of showing pornography to a 14 year old and who has since been accused of sexual abuse was kept off the list because as the assistant officials put it he does not fit our categories and so we would have to change them to include him the church now is claiming that they're not going to include this priest who showed pornography to a fourteen-year-old because they would have to change their own internal categories who cares about their categories 7 Eyewitness News has obtained documents that refer to a database created by sister Regina Murphy who was then the diocese archivist and who now serves as Chancellor the documents summarized confidential files and allegations as of May 1st 2017 a database has been created that lists all persons who have been accused of criminal abusive or inappropriate behavior or who have been the victim of such behavior the document states the list includes 324 total names 202 diocesan priests including former priests 44 religious order priests 61 lay persons or non ordained employees of the church like Catholic school teachers seven deacons and seven women religious a church official confirmed the context of the database but said these offenses are not exclusively sexual and also appear to include violations against both minors and adults which explains this higher set of figures memos between sister Regina and Bishop Malone indicates she created the database last year in locations at diocesan headquarters that were nicknamed the well and the secret archives the memo state that no government agency is to have full access to the secret documents without a court order or subpoena sister Regina tells Malone and a 2017 memo that in the cases of 7 particular priests files we are awaiting our lawyers confirmation that these materials can be shredded after victims called the diocese wondering why the names of various priests were not on the list those same lawyers urged Malone not to alter the original list of 42 Church Attorney Lawler Quinlan wrote in a March 20th email this is probably the first of many complaints about the list not including every priest against whom we have ever received a complaint we need to weather this storm for a while without changing our lists Rochelle Malone said he agreed and in another email hinted that the list was perhaps not as complete as a diocese one of the public to believe Tom Beecher a Buffalo lawyer who is one of the bishops key supporters were to letter to the editor to the Buffalo News on March 12th saying the great majority of priests have never harmed a soul he said a victim advocates claim that the real number of abusive priests was double or triple the 19 who were accused at that time was quote unsubstantiated and speculation great letter to the editor auxilary bishop edward gross wrote in an e-mail bishop malone responded saying except that we know there are more names and Tom and others would like to think the bishop had a chance to right the ship and to pick up whatever credibility he had left I think we were all willing to let him do that but now with the revelations over the past couple of weeks you know he claims he wants to be a good Shepherd and that a good shepherd never leaves his flock but if he really cared about the diocese and wanted to see the diocese rise from its ashes which is where it is right now he would Shepherd the transition to a new leadership now in response the spokeswoman for the Diocese of Buffalo released a statement saying that it quote conducted an extensive deliberate and careful process of releasing the names of diocesan priests about whom we have received substantiate allegations of abuse a standard of transparency to which we will continue to hold ourselves moving forward Doric move by federal prosecutors 7 Eyewitness News eye-team chief investigator Charlie SPECT uncovering these emails they confirm the feds have hit the Diocese of Buffalo with a subpoena as they investigate sexual abuse by western New York priests good evening ever want a source confirming to the i-team that the subpoena served to the Diocese of Buffalo was related to pornography taking victims across state lines and the use of cell phones and social media this marks the first time the feds have ever investigated the Catholic Church most investigations previously being handled by state and local authorities at least seven Pennsylvania dioceses have also been subpoenaed I am a very ordinary person and I found myself in rather extraordinary circumstances and the way I look at it is that I was the right person in the right place at the right time and God gave me the strength to do the right thing without Siobhan O'Connor the Diocese of Buffalo may have pulled off one of the greatest cover-ups in the history of the Catholic Church O'Connor served for three years as Bishop Richard Malone's personal secretary she's deeply religious and once studied to become a nun while working at Malone side she began to see the ugly underbelly of how the Diocese of Buffalo handled sexual abuse she went public earlier today as a key whistleblower and source in 7 Eyewitness News 3 part I team investigation into Malone's handling of sexual abuse telling the national news magazine 60 minutes that she felt morally compelled to provide key documents describing a cover-up of allegations under Malone's watch before the airing of the 60 minutes piece O'Connor explained to 7 Eyewitness News that the seeds for her actions were planted in March when the diocese announced a settlement program for victims of sexual abuse the nice ease was so unprepared for the wave of allegations that she began taking phone calls from victims many who had waited years for justice from the church and then I began to be attached to these people I mean they they shared their lives with me and I cried with them and I cared about them publicly bishop malone said he wanted victims to come forward when a hot line created by the diocese rang to an empty office in Cheektowaga manned remotely by a part-time employee all calls for the first three weeks went directly to voicemail after waiting weeks for a return call O'Connor says victims began showing up at the Chancery to tell their stories O'Connor listened to one man's story in a supply closet because the diocese had set aside and no space to hear these victims and he told me that his wife had died a few years ago and he hadn't even told her and then he shared what he had endured and I was just I was really overcome in that moment because you just couldn't see how raw that pain is and I I wished I could do more for him O'Connor was moved to write a newspaper opinion piece in June where she said victims deserved compassion not criticism I remember finding out after the fact that Bishop Malone was not pleased with the article I wrote because he said that it was not supportive enough of him it was overly supportive of the victims and I was told by another member of senior staff that I had an inordinate sympathy for the victims and I don't think that's possible but it was Malone's handling of two accused priests that finally convinced her it was time to quit her job she wrote an emails to the bishop that she was becoming morally allergic to that job I already knew at that point that things were not self-correcting it wasn't as though every diocese had just kind of careened off half the path and we're writing themselves things were we're not going in the right direction and I thought you were the one who who might be able to help the most from the outside that's when I approached O'Connor and we had the first of many secret meetings in this abandoned parking lot she began to reveal a trove of secret documents that implicated Bishop Malone in the mishandling of clergy sexual abuse allegations and I remember thinking that I that I would trust you with this information that you would not treat it in a salacious manner I could tell you had great compassion for the victims and that you also had respect for our church exposing the bishops actions was not a decision O'Connor came too easily I devoted my life to working for him I knew him very well he had invited me into his home I had traveled with him and yet I realized that sometimes you have to have a loyalty to something greater and an allegiance to the common good versus someone's personal good and especially when I thought about the survivors I thought I would be betraying them if I didn't do something the explosive information has led to calls for Bishop Malone to resign on the advice of church lawyers he called an emergency news conference three days after our first bombshell I team investigation and admitted wrongdoing but refused to resign the Shepherd does not desert the flock at a difficult time by the end of it I was in tears because it was just business as usual a task force a new office a new staff member strengthening the code of conduct there's nothing wrong with the code of conduct it needs to be enforced and there were so many things he could have done and he and he didn't and said they they lock down those files and and it went just to that protect the diocese protect the bishop sources say those aggressive moves are one reason the FBI has not launched a criminal investigation into the diocese o'connor feels the scrutiny is a long time coming but knows it will take a toll on her former colleagues i think that i'm gonna lose a lot of friends because of this because i brought pain upon them and I brought dark days to the catholic center o'connor was ready to pay the price for speaking truth to the most powerful institution on earth but says she now feels at peace for standing up for what was right I remember thinking even if they put me in jail at least in jail I would have a clear conscience but I would have been imprisoned by regret for my whole life if I didn't do this so in a certain sense as much as I did it for the survivors and for our diocese and our community I did it for myself too because I couldn't have walked away and and lived with myself so I was really compelled to do this in many respects but for my own soul at a news conference two weeks ago Bishop Richard Malone said he had a good record on dealing with sexually abusive priests you'd call it a cover-up we call it confidentially he pointed to his time in the Diocese of Portland Maine where he served for eight years before coming to Buffalo but here in the bishops old Diocese of Portland Maine advocates for victims of sexual abuse as well as new documents obtained by the i-team he named much different picture on the Bishop's past especially when it comes to the issue of sexual abuse the i-team travelled to Maine and talked to Catholics like Paul Kendrick who was an advocate for victims of sexual abuse the bishopman I came to know here in Maine is an actor on a stage Kendrick sparred with Malone many times calling for him to be more transparent his battles with Malone drew national attention when the bishop threatened to deny Kendrick Holy Communion Malone is is a is a fake a phony the Irish say a phony baloney he's not telling the truth when when when he likes to say I never knew but even Kendrick didn't know what we were able to find in these confidential documents that describe how Malone handled abuse controversies involving these two priests in Maine the documents are summaries of two separate investigations conducted by this man John Brennan a Catholic deacon and a thirty year law enforcement veteran who retired as the deputy chief of the Portland Police Department Brennan served as a Portland diocese internal investigator during Malone's 8-year tenure he declined an interview request because he is cooperating with the FBI but Brennan confirmed to the i-team the authenticity of the documents with respect to the Vatican and Bishop Malone he wrote in one report this was a complete cover-up of the highest order that cannot possibly be explained or defended and still screams out for justice it was here at this parish in South Portland where a priest was suspended for befriending a violent sex offender and allowing him to live in the parish rectory the priest was father Paul Coughlin the sex offender a man named John Skinner Skinner was convicted in 2004 of sexually abusing two boys he met through Catholic youth groups he was sentenced to 18 years in prison and the reports describe what Brennan calls two outrageous situations regarding the pedophile and the priest the first involved a 15 year old boy whom Skinner allegedly raped the report says Skinner brought the boy to father Coughlin who failed to call the police later according to the report father Coughlin tried to get Skinner hired as a youth minister at his parish and allowed him to live in the parish rectory just steps away from this parish center frequented by kids are you kidding me you you have you have a man who's who served time been convicted of child sexual abuse rape you have him living in your rectory after his investigation Brennan wrote the Vatican issued a mild rebuke of father Coughlin and allowed him alone to remove him from ministry when after two years Brennan wrote that bishop Malone took it upon himself to secretly return this priest to ministry newspaper archives confirm Brennan's account quoting bishop Malone as saying I believe father Coughlin has had adequate time to reflect on his actions Malone took the unusual step of barring Coughlin from ministry in these three cities while allowing him to serve as a priest in the rest of the state Brennan says Malone reversed that decision only after employees at the Portland Chancery expressed their outrage well what kind of insanity is that the so called crisis and the church has been going on about protecting children and this guy Coughlin brings in a convicted pedophile to the roam around and that Coughlin would think that's okay and then Malone would go to bat for Coughlin the second case involves father Thomas Lee according to Brennan's interviews with more than ten adults father Lee would take them camping when they were children and allow them to swim nude as he shined a light on them he suggested they should take turns showering entered the shower area and took photographs of them invited the children into his bedroom and while they were still naked covered their bodies with powder he would then massage their entire bodies including their genital areas often using an electrical device as he massaged them Brennan wrote a 60 page report but the allegations went nowhere even after the diocesan review board unanimously affirmed the complaint against father Lee had been substantiated after a first internal church trial found father Lee innocent Brennan put pressure on the bishop telling him the father Lee case would come back to haunt him and that if the father Lee case resulted in a civil trial or some kind of criminal investigation I would not lie or cover up the facts to protect the diocese Malone took Brennan's advice and petitioned the Vatican for a second trial but Lee was again found innocent after the three judges all priests found father these actions to be imprudent but none of were sinful in any respect Brennan says he was not allowed to submit his report or contact witnesses to testify at either trial the bishop told reporters he was stunned and disappointed at the outcome of the case but Brennan wrote when I complained to push him along that this was yet another extraordinary cover-up by the Vatican of child sexual abuse by a member of the Catholic priesthood he indicated that there was nothing more that he could do and he had so little respect for the harms and injuries of the children by this priest that he just threw his hands up said too bad here's the process here's what the church tells me to do father Lee is retired but still listed as a priest in the Portland priest directory just a summer parish bulletin show he was honored at a mass at Good Shepherd parish Brennan says he quote personally witnessed father Lee proudly standing at the altar of the diocese Cathedral during major celebrations and I have even encountered him at a private reception at Bishop Malone's home between New York and Maine bishop malone has now been criticized for the way he has handled five separate cases of misconduct involving minors many have wondered why a bishop would take the chance supporting priests accused of abuse but Kendrick has a theory I see Malone as a career climber as a guy you know he thought he'd go from here - I think Boston or Philadelphia or Chicago perhaps one of the larger diocese that's that's that's what he's interested in because guess what if he yells too loud he's not gonna go to Philadelphia or Buffalo even he knows that Charlie spec 7 Eyewitness News now in response who are reporting bishop malone issued a statement that reads in part quote I stand by the fact that the canonical process as it relates to father thomas lee and father paul Coughlin was scrupulously followed during my time as bishop in portland maine for anyone to imply that there was any sort of cover-up in either case is patently false we were transparent issuing press releases and letters to the faithful throughout both investigations we are following breaking in out of Albany tonight where the state legislature has now passed the child victims Act this bill now awaits Governor Cuomo's signature now this act will give victims of child sex abuse decades longer to file lawsuits or seek criminal charges against their abusers it comes on the heels of the sex abuse scandal exposed by the 7 Eyewitness News i-team that has rocked the Buffalo Catholic Diocese our i-team chief investigator Charlie SPECT is live in Albany tonight Keith it's really a historic a day here at the State Capitol in Albany after state legislators after years of delay and debate have finally decided to reform what many have called it's archaic sexual abuse laws senators today gave passionate testimony about sexual abuse of children perhaps none more so than state senator Tim Kennedy a Catholic a Democrat from South Buffalo who said his religion aside this is a matter of human rights and justice Kennedy specifically cited the abuse scandal that has enveloped the Diocese of Buffalo led to a federal investigation and suicided incited our reporting when it comes to the handling of sexual abuse by the current bishop at Richard Malone and his predecessors now what this legislation will do is change the statutes of limitation from the age of 23 to 28 in criminal cases and 55 in civil cases it will also establish a one-year window period where victims of childhood sexual abuse can take can take action in court and file lawsuits against the institutions or their abusers no matter when the original abuse took place nobody was happier and more relieved when this legislation passed in the state Senate unanimously than Michael Whalen the abuse victim from South Buffalo who first came forward nearly a year ago and brought all of these abuse cases to light it means a lot to me and my family and to all the victims that have been hurt in waiting for this moment victims and survivors of childhood sexual abuse in the Diocese of specifically but all throughout the church all throughout the state and in the nation these victims of abuse that have so courageously told their story today is their day today is the day where we bring them closure where we allow them to finally bring to light their abusers and finally get that justice that they've been longing for fighting for and that they rightfully deserve when the bill was passed unanimously it was hard for Whalen to mask his emotions he did it for his kids they see that you know I've fought a good fight in the hopes that people like him will no longer suffer in silence my grandkids you know I'm saying for my kids said any harm that comes they have the power now you know what I'm saying god forbid anything happened but I am so glad when a senator simply apologized from the Senate floor it meant a lot it's been a long year for Waylon that one that has been worth all the effort I wouldn't change nothing I'm so glad that I came forward now as far as when this bill would be signed into law by Governor Cuomo the Lieutenant Governor says it's really just a matter of days the law would bring New York more in line with other states in the nation when it comes to childhood sexual abuse legislation and lieutenant governor local said most importantly it will send a message to victims and survivors of sexual abuse everywhere that New York State is finally on their side from the Capitol charlie speck 7 Eyewitness News

Channel: WKBW TV | Buffalo, NY

Views: 165,219

Keywords: WKBW, Buffalo NY, New York, Buffalo, Local News, News, fall from grace, catholic, diocese of buffalo, sexual abuse, scandal, channel 7, charlie specht, bishop malone, cover up

Id: GYFbDmN4X6E

Length: 49min 43sec (2983 seconds)

Published: Wed Jan 30 2019