DiMarzio said there is no truth to the accusation.

The attorney informed Catholic officials in New Jersey that he is preparing a lawsuit on behalf of a client who says he was molested by Brooklyn Bishop Nicholas DiMarzio in the mid-1970s, when DiMarzio was a parish priest in Jersey City.

NEW YORK — A Roman Catholic bishop named by Pope Francis to investigate the church’s response to clergy sexual abuse in Buffalo has himself been accused of sexual abuse of a child, an attorney for the alleged victim notified the church this week.

“I am just learning about this allegation,” he said in a statement Tuesday. “In my nearly 50-year ministry as a priest, I have never engaged in unlawful or inappropriate behavior and I emphatically deny this allegation. I am confident I will be fully vindicated.”


In a letter sent Monday to the church’s Newark, N.J., archdiocese, Boston attorney Mitchell Garabedian said 56-year-old Mark Matzek alleges he was repeatedly abused by DiMarzio and a second priest, the late Rev. Albert Mark, when he was an altar boy at St. Nicholas Church and a student at St. Nicholas School.

Last month, the pope tapped DiMarzio to investigate the church’s Buffalo Diocese, where Bishop Joseph Malone has come under fire for his handling of a burgeoning clergy abuse scandal that has roiled the diocese and prompted calls for his resignation.

“The investigation of the diocese of Buffalo by Bishop DiMarzio is tainted because of these allegations,” Garabedian said. “There needs to be a truly neutral investigator to determine whether Bishop Malone should resign,” he said, adding that the investigation should be led by a law enforcement agency.

Adriana Rodriguez, press secretary for the Brooklyn Diocese, said DiMarzio has completed his report on the Buffalo Diocese and has submitted it to the Vatican.


DiMarzio and Malone are in Rome this week for a previously scheduled visit of New York bishops to the Holy See.

associated press