BUFFALO, N.Y. — The Movement to Restore Trust is calling for Bishop Richard Malone to resign.
The members of the committee contacted Bishop Malone on Thursday, asking that he resign immediately.
"This was a very difficult decision that was arrived at following lengthy prayer, reflection and discussion," they said in a released statement.
The Movement to Restore Trust was formed in 2018 to assert the laity's role in the Church and restore trust and confidence in the Buffalo Catholic Church following dozens of allegations of priest sexual abuse.
2 On Your Side reached out to the diocese for a response to Movement to Restore Trust's statement.
"Bishop Richard Malone received word from the MRT organizing group earlier in the day," the spokesperson said. "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."
Robert Greene, one of the group's organizing committee members, told 2 On Your Side the decision to call on the bishop to resign was unanimous.
"Disclosures of the last few days with respect to the mishandling of certain matters was kind of a tipping point," he said. "We're really sorry to have to reach the conclusion we did but sometimes when a leader has become the focus of a lot of disagreement, that leader just loses all effectiveness and we think that's what's happened."
Here is a portion of their statement:
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.
Bishop Richard Malone held a press conference Wednesday to address on going issues within the Catholic Diocese of Buffalo.
Malone reiterated that he has no plans on resigning. He repeatedly says he’s not a masochist, but continues to say he believes a majority of WNY Catholics support him and want him to stay on as Bishop.
