Another priest assigned to a scandal-ridden diocese in upstate New York has been accused of sexual abuse, and he is still in active ministry.

According to reports, a lawsuit to be filed later this week will accuse a priest assigned to the Diocese of Buffalo of abusing the plaintiff when he was 8-years-old. This news comes less than a week after a report that Bishop Robert Malone kept an accused priest on the job for nearly nine months after he first learned of the allegations.

It is clear that something is deeply wrong in the Diocese of Buffalo and it is time for Bishop Malone to resign. His actions over the past year have included lying to the public about the number of accused priests within his diocese, ignoring zero tolerance policies to return allegedly abusive priests to ministry, and keeping accused priests within active ministry. With a track record as poor as this, we cannot understand why his brother bishops have not yet denounced his behavior, nor why the Vatican has not yet stepped in to discipline the bishop for ignoring the protections laid out in the Dallas Charter.

But we hope that local Catholics and other members of the public are paying closer attention to Bishop Malone and will demand his resignation. It is clear that if children and vulnerable adults are to be safe in Buffalo, it will need to be under someone else’s watch.

CONTACT: Zach Hiner, Executive Director (517-974-9009, zhiner@snapnetwork.org)

(SNAP, the Survivors Network, has been providing support for victims of sexual abuse in institutional settings for 30 years. We have more than 25,000 survivors and supporters in our network. Our website is SNAPnetwork.org)