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Background:
Law enforcement has given priests of the Diocese of Buffalo preferential treatment for decades, leaving crimes like child pornography to the whim of the bishop without a thought or question. Cops handed priest offenders off to Buffalo's "Pugilist Priest", Msgr. Franklin M. Kelliher, who would beat sense into them in the name of the bishop.

In 2018 a 2003 "handshake agreement" between Bishop Henry Mansell of the Diocese of Buffalo and eight District Attorneys was revealed by WGRZ NBC, and then renewed by current diocesan and law enforcement officials at an unclear time in 2018. Publicly available copies of the 2003 and 2018 agreements only became available first through the reporting of Claudine Ewing. According to DA John Flynn: "At the end of the day, if [the diocese] wanted to thumb their noses at us, they can because this memorandum of understanding has no teeth to it.”

2018 began the third inflection point for the investigation of clergy sexual abuse in the Diocese of Buffalo.

The first is the history itself. The US bishops have known about 1,000s of clergy abuse cases since the 1950s, and the whole church has been dealing with the phenomenon since almost as long as it has recorded its history. Although in the news various times in the 80s, most people did not and do not want to think about it. My students in the 90s knew about it, enough to make jokes about it. And the bishops knew, and the priests knew. It did not change how they acted. The first waves of media coverage were on Catholic radar everywhere, and close in proximity to Buffalo. Evidence of coverup by Bishops Head and Trautman has begun to be outed from this time period; and what they knew about a playbook, treatment centers, and with knowledge of infamous predators. The playbook was discussed in the bishop's conference then, as it is today.

By Fall 1991, Christ the King Seminary was given two hours of safe environment training at the Catholic Center, under the direction of Fr. Bob Zapfel, Vice Chancellor. We were given "the best science of the time" by the likes of Richard Gillmartin of Southdown (Toronto) and Fr. Stephen Rosetti of St. Luke Institute (himself of Rochester) on formation weekends. The second inflection point was all local in late 1993 and through 1994, when reporters Dan Herbeck, Steve Boyd and others broke ground on reporting the local crisis starting with cases including Fr. John Aurelio of Christ the King Seminary, my homilitics professor, and reporters with satellite trucks were on our campus.

In my time among seminarians at Christ the King Seminary (1991-95), it was the guys from Buffalo who were most peculiar in their attitude surrounding clergy sexual abuse, compared to guys from other dioceses. Permissive in practice and defensive when challenged, most of the Buffalo sems 1991-92 acted like sexual abuse by clergy was a non-issue, or not significant. When our homiletics teacher's abuse became public, anytime I tried to process that with Buffalo guys they were like "it's our problem" or "don't you know you have it as bad in Erie". Didn't I? Buffalo's problem, though, was created largely by Donald Trautman before he brought his playbook across state lines and perpetuated and compounded Erie's problems. Strangely Trautman more regularly hosted the Buffalo class of 1997 than any Erie class of priests that he ordained. My knowledge of the Diocese of Buffalo includes Frs. Joe Gatto, Robert Zapfel, Fred Leising, John Aurelio, Ron Ciera, Dennis Riter, Frank Tuchols, Ron Sajdak, Mark Wolski, Arthur Mattulke, Rob Orlowski, Pat O'Keefe, Daniel Fawls, Mitch Nycz, and Charles O'Connor OFM. Affiliated among some of these include Fr. Gregory Gerard White and Ronald Tully of the Diocese of Patterson NY, who factored into the experience of many of us.

Calls for Public Investigations Begin:
2018_03_18: Bishop Malone answered our public call for a transparent accounting by releasing an updated public list in March 2018. He fought us, then seemingly caved with a release of names, but lied about it. We called attention to that lie, which prompted investigation by the NY OAG. Many public officials called out the cascade of false and misleading statements from Bishop Malone, who leaned on his authority and the good will of his donors. Malone's laziness and duplicity as a bishop are not unique to him.

2018_07_01: On Pennsylvania providing leadership for states investigating the Catholic Church: "Malone and other bishops won't willingly divulge those details, which is why a grand jury investigation is necessary in New York."

2018_08_07: Erie County (NY) Legislator Patrick Burke hosts "Important Conversations" with Bob Hoatson and me in council chambers. Burke, with Lt. Governor Hochul and Buffalo Common Councilman Christopher Scanlon, and US Rep. Brian Higgins were among elected officials to publicly call for the resignation of Bishop Richard Malone.       

2018_08_17: Point-counterpoint with Erie County (NY) DA John Flynn on the need for a New York state-wide investigation, and calling on the Governor to issue an Executive Order initiating a criminal investigation. Acting state AG initiates a process with local DAs.

2018_08_19: A powerful editorial by The Buffalo News calling for a PA-style investigation.

2018_08_21: NPR interview pointing out Bishop Malone's fraudulent public number of alleged Buffalo perpetrators, and the need for a grand jury investigation in New York.

2018_09_06: Using state statutes governing non-profit charities, NY Attorney General Barbara Underwood announces a state-wide investigation of all eight dioceses in New York. Subpoenas follow.

2018_10_18: Federal response to this crisis began with an early June 2018 subpoena of documents from the Diocese of Buffalo, and was announced in October of that same year. There is an interesting tale about how CBS  Nikki Battiste broke this story and another national outlet didn't.

2020 New York Attorney General Summons & Complaint against the Diocese of Buffalo, Bishops Richard J. Malone, Edward M. Grosz, and Edward B. Scharfenberger, in his capacity as Apostolic Administrator for the Diocese of Buffalo. At multiple points, the complait identifies false claims by the leadership of the Diocese made in response to our March 2018 demonstrations.

Overview, pp. 00-10.

Section I. The USCCB Adopts the Charter and the Essential Norms, pp.11-20.
Section II. The Attorney General's Investigation, pp. 20-21.
Section III. Summary of Breaches of Fiduciary Duties..., pp. 21-37.
Section IV. The Diocesan Corporation Misled the Public..., pp. 38-41.
Section V. Individual Cases Demonstrating the Defendants' Breaches..., pp. 41-203.

Section VI. Causes of Action, pp. 203-213.

Prayer for Relief, pp. 213-216.

By 2022, the investigation into the Diocese of Buffalo by the NY AG seemed to have stalled after three years and no new revelations. No diocese outside of Buffalo has seen any action or revelations for the duration of the NYstate investigation.

10_25_2022 Press Release of the New York Attorney General: "Attorney General James Reaches Landmark Settlement with Catholic Diocese of Buffalo for Mishandling Child Sexual Abuse Cases". link and .pdf. Reporting by Mark Sheer of the Niagara Gazette (.pdf archive). 

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