BUFFALO, N.Y. — Editor’s note: This is Part 3 of an ongoing 2 On Your Side series, “Faith & Fallout,” which examines multiple issues facing the Diocese of Buffalo, including the sexual abuse of children, bankruptcy, church closings and how the diocese spends donations by parishioners.
When Bishop Michael Fisher announced a settlement in 2022 between the Diocese of Buffalo and State Attorney General Letitia James, he announced the hiring of attorney Melissa Potzler as the diocese’s new child protection policy coordinator.
“Since I arrived here … I’m about accountability and transparency,” Fisher said at the news conference.
Two years later, Potzler oversees a monitoring program for 20 priests and former priests. The diocese acknowledges that its own investigators have substantiated child sex abuse allegations against the men.
The diocese also points to a recent audit — which was commissioned as part of the settlement with the AG — that states the diocese is in “full compliance” with its promises to protect children.
But 2 On Your Side dug deeper into that audit and found reasons to question its independence. And when we pushed for specifics, the diocese backed out of our interview with Potzler about the steps it’s taking to monitor abusive priests and protect kids.
The audit was done by Kathleen McChesney, a former FBI official who left the bureau in 2002 to work for the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops. McChesney has been honored in Catholic circles but her independence has sometimes been questioned by survivors because of that relationship.
Financial reports obtained by 2 On Your Side show the diocese has paid McChesney $225,000 since January. Other spending reports show the diocese’s longtime criminal defense firm, Connors LLP — which was criticized in the AG lawsuit for lacking “independence” in evaluating sex abuse claims — remains heavily involved in evaluating sex abuse cases.
2 On Your Side legal analyst Barry Covert works for Lipsitz Green Scime Cambria, one of many law firms suing the diocese in U.S. Bankruptcy Court. Covert said he is not actively involved in those cases.
After Covert reviewed the audit and other spending documents obtained by 2 On Your Side, we asked him whether it seems the diocese has fundamentally changed the way it operates.
“As an institution, they don't seem to have,” Covert said. “They've not been transparent. They're not telling the public what's going on.”
If the Buffalo Diocese wants to put an end to the criticism that it is not handling child sex abuse by clergy properly, “then you really should be bringing in someone who is truly, truly separate and isolated from any influence by the diocese or their outside counsel,” Covert said.
The AG mandated the diocese create its priest monitoring program after it subpoenaed church records revealing cases like Fr. Dennis Fronczak, who the diocese allowed to minister in 2006 even though it knew of “eight alleged incidents” of sexually inappropriate behavior with young girls.
And Fr. Art Smith, who former Bishop Richard Malone returned to ministry in 2012 after Smith groomed a minor — something Malone in a deposition with the AG said was his biggest error as bishop.
“This is my mistake,” Malone said. “It was the dumbest thing I have ever done as a bishop.”
Diocesan officials say they have substantiated sex abuse allegations against the 20 men in the program. But the men are not on any sex offender registry because many of the alleged crimes were never reported to police.
The monitoring program takes oversight duties out of the hands of Auxiliary Bishop Edward Grosz — who is now on administrative leave after an allegation of abuse that he denies — and gives that power to retired federal probation officer Kathleen Horvatits, who is paid an average of $3,300 per month by the diocese, according to financial records.
According to the audit, 12 priests are complying with the program, but eight are not. When we asked the diocese for basic information about the men — such as their names — Potzler backed out of our interview, with a spokesperson citing “legal questions” and the need to confer with outside counsel (longtime criminal defense attorneys Terry Connors and Lawlor Quinlan). Connors declined to comment for this story.
“If they’re backing out of interviews with you, again, that’s a negative sign,” Covert said. “They should be open to all interviews, all press conferences, because what should they really have to hide?”
The diocese then returned to the same public relations and legal strategy it used during Malone’s era: saying it would not provide anyone for 2 On Your Side to interview for the final two parts of our series and instead issuing a written statement that side-stepped most of our questions.
“As the Diocese of Buffalo’s first obligation is to ensure that children are protected, the priests who are subject to the Diocese’s monitoring program are NOT serving as priests anywhere,” the statement said. Click here to read the full statement.
The statement did not provide the name of a single priest — including one priest identified only as “Cleric-C” in the audit — who had four allegations against him and according to the audit, “occasionally celebrated masses at various churches in the diocese.”
The diocese would only specify that the 20 priests being monitored are on the list of 87 priests with substantiated allegations on the diocese website. The statement also said communications between itself and the Vatican are “confidential.”
“Yes, legally maybe you don’t have to do certain things,” Covert said. “But you are not an entity that is based upon legality. You are an entity that is based upon morals and religion and belief and doing the right thing in all instances, even when you maybe are not required to do that.”
A spokesperson for James, the attorney general, said in an email that the AG “does not have the authority to compel the diocese to denote which priests have failed to comply with the Priest Supervision Program, but those priests are no longer receiving their pensions.”
Covert said the lack of full transparency is another indication that six years after the sex abuse scandal erupted in Buffalo, the diocese is a long way from earning back trust.
“Why did this happen? Why, just as an institution, did you allow this to happen?” Covert said. “And why aren't you correcting it more transparently, more openly, and trying to really turn the page? That's really what I think everybody has been looking for, everyone's been demanding, and just has not happened.”
Part 4 of this series, which will focus on the impact of bankruptcy on abuse survivors and on a court battle for secret sex abuse files, will air on 2 On Your Side at 6 p.m. on Aug. 14.
Have a tip for the 2 On Your Side Investigates team? Contact Charlie Specht at Charlie.Specht@wgrz.com or Sean Mickey at Sean.Mickey@wgrz.com. All tips will be treated as confidential.