BUFFALO, NY-- In March the Buffalo Catholic Diocese publicly named 42 priests who have been accused of sexual abuse.
Whistleblowers inside the church, however, told 60 Minutes the number of priests accused of sexual abuse is actually much higher.
Siobhan O'Connor, who used to work closely with Bishop Richard Malone, told the CBS reporter that she hoped for a grand jury to get involved and for other independent investigations, but then worried about other potential victims. She also was concerned with the initial release of 42 names of priests tied to sexual abuse complaints by Bishop Malone, because she knew from the reports that there were up to 118 priests listed in complaint reports.
A second whistleblower, Father Robert Zilliox, says several of those priests are still working in Buffalo.
2 On Your Side believes the public has a right to know if an accused priest is working in their parish, and this petition asks the Buffalo Diocese to publicly release the full list of its accused priests.
The Catholic Diocese of Buffalo issued a statement Monday, following the report on 60 Minutes. In it they say:
"The material reported in the stories was incomplete, out of context and in some cases plainly inaccurate... We know that some clergy and lay people have chosen to speak their minds and publicize confidential documents about the current crisis in our diocese These individuals say that they acted according to their consciences. We take them at their word, as we did before. If they have any specific matters that they believe need to be addressed, we would appreciate that information... People will make up their own minds once they have heard our response to these stories. For our part, at the Diocese of Buffalo, we intend to better utilize our platforms moving forward as a catalyst to share important information, especially about the abuse crisis. Those platforms include: our website, social media (Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram) and our monthly WNY Catholic newspaper. Several very positive changes are in the works to more effectively, transparently and actively communicate with the public.