Pope Francis accepted the resignation of Bishop Richard Malone of Buffalo, New York, and named Albany Bishop Edward Scharfenberger, to administer the Buffalo diocese until a new bishop can be appointed.

Malone, 73, who has been under pressure to resign for years, stepped down two years before bishops' normal retirement date. Continue reading

The legislation - called Vos Estis Lux Mundi - enacted what is known as the Metropolitan Model, in which archbishops would play a prominent role in policing those bishops in their ecclesiastical province.

This week, the first investigation into misconduct being carried out under the procedures set out in the new law was announced: Archbishop Bernard A. Hebda of St. Paul and Minneapolis (pictured) will look into allegations that Bishop Michael J. Hoeppner of Crookston "carried out acts or omissions intended to interfere with or avoid civil or canonical investigations of clerical sexual misconduct."

In a statement on Wednesday, the archdiocese said law enforcement had also been notified of the allegations.

Jeff Anderson, a St. Paul attorney who has represented hundreds of survivors of clerical sexual abuse, told The Associated Press that the allegations against Hoeppner likely stem from lawsuits against the Crookston diocese that have been settled, including one by Ron Vasek, who was aspiring to be a deacon when, he alleged, Hoeppner blackmailed him into signing a letter in 2015 that essentially retracted his allegation that a popular priest had abused him when he was 16-years-old.

The present case would probably be held up as an example of the new legislation working as it should, with Hebda being noted as the best person to put the new law to the test.

After all, before becoming a bishop, Hebda served for over 20 years at the Vatican's Pontifical Council for Legislative Texts, rising to become the office's undersecretary.

When he arrived in St. Paul-Minneapolis as apostolic administrator in 2015, Hebda's first responsibility was to clean up the mess left behind by Archbishop John Nienstedt, who was not only accused of mishandling abuse cases, but was also accused of personal sexual misconduct.

In other words, Hebda would be near the top of anyone's list of bishops to take Vos Estis Lux Mundi for a test drive.

In fact, some cynical observers might also note that the Vatican would probably want the first few investigations to be conducted in a place like Minnesota, which is far from the intense media scrutiny likely in other parts of the United States. Like New York, for example.

However, events might make such a media intensive investigation inevitable.

Bishop Richard Malone of Buffalo has been under fire for over a year, after his former secretary became a whistleblower, and leaked hundreds of pages of diocesan records alleging that Malone had allowed accused priests to stay on the job and that he has actively engaged in abuse cover-up.

This summer, the scandal took an almost farcical turn.

Two seminarians for the diocese quit, calling on Malone to quit over his handling of clergy misconduct.

One of them, Matthew Bojanowski, alleged that he was sexually harassed by Father Jeffrey Nowak, and that Malone failed to take action when it was reported.

Later, Malone's priest secretary — Father Ryszard Biernat - leaked secret recordings in which Malone voiced concerns that the Nowak scandal could force him to resign.

Biernat later accused the bishop of silencing him when he lodged a complaint of sexual harassment against yet another priest.

Then, in a soap opera twist, an incriminating 2016 letter began circulating. It was written by Biernat to Bojanowski, and by all appearances was romantic in nature.

Public records show the two men co-own a house.

The letter had been photographed by Nowak when he was in Bojanowski's room. Continue reading

Related

• Mandatory reporting of clerical sexual abuse
• Analysis: 'Vos estis' and 'vulnerability'
• Analysis: Is Pope Francis' new abuse plan the answer Catholics are looking for?

Ordinary Catholics are comfortable today doing and saying things that would have been unthinkable to them just a few short years ago.

And this is a good thing.

More than changes to Church governance, the policies and procedures, changes in what ordinary Catholics expect of themselves have the potential to improve the health of the Church.

We have the potential to help the victims find healing and justice.

And our new sense of what is acceptable behavior has the potential to pressure the clergy themselves into better behavior.

The ongoing drama in the Diocese of Buffalo, New York, illustrates these points.

Buffalo Bishop Richard Malone has come under fire for covering up clergy sexual abuse.

The diocese released a list of 42 credibly accused priests. However, the local TV station found more than 100 names.

The FBI is investigating the diocese.

A federal grand jury has subpoenaed two retired judges who are overseeing a diocesan program to compensate abuse victims. The usual mess.

In a slightly new and different twist, the diocese recently placed several priests on administrative leave for issues not directly related to sexual abuse of minors.

A local news source reports:

"According to the diocese, ‘unsuitable, inappropriate and insensitive conversations' took place during a social gathering of seminarians and priests on April 11 that some seminarians found to be offensive."

Five priests and 14 seminarians were present at this pizza party at a local rectory.

Three priests were placed on administrative leave. The other two priests were reprimanded for not doing enough to stop the inappropriate conversation.

Of the 14 seminarians present, five have been interviewed as of this writing.

They tell a mutually consistent story of (very) crude conversation that most Catholics would regard as (really) inappropriate for clergy.

To say that the diocese has "trust issues" would be an understatement.

Many local Catholics don't trust anything that comes out of the chancery or Christ the King Seminary.

This cloud of suspicion is a basic fact of our current Catholic culture, and it affects how people respond.

When the pizza-party story broke, I saw people defending one of the priests on Facebook.

They were sure Bishop Malone was trying to get rid of this priest, whom they regarded as good and orthodox.

Eventually, more evidence came out confirming the seminarians' story that the priest in fact made the inappropriate comments.

But the original reaction shows how little trust people have in the Catholic establishment in Buffalo.

I also saw people connecting the dots between priests' sexually explicit talk in the presence of seminarians, a priest having a "romantic interest" in a seminarian and clergy sexual abuse of minors.

In the public mind, tolerance of one issue leads to tolerance of the other issues and to an environment of clergy covering for each other.

Do we, as members of the general public, have all the facts?

No, of course not.

In the nature of things, we cannot have all the facts about a private gathering.

This is obviously not the healthiest environment for getting to the truth of important matters.

But the diocese has only itself to blame.

Its pattern of nontransparency induces people to project the worst possible interpretation onto uncertain situations.

This a noteworthy change in Catholic culture.

Once upon a time in post-World War II America, Catholics revered their priests. Bing Crosby's Father Charles O'Malley would never harm anyone or tell a lie. Catholics and non-Catholics alike trusted Bishop Fulton Sheen.

Even in the post-Vatican II theological free-for-all, dissenting and faithful Catholics alike would have been uneasy with the assumption that a bishop was lying to them.

Those days are long gone.

Questioning clergy and their motives is no longer a marker for disrespect, dissent or anti-Catholicism.

We are light-years away even from the scandals of 2002.

Back then, some of the best investigative reporting was done by news outlets that also pushed for heterodox changes in Church teaching.

Back then, people who loved the Church's magisterium tried to minimize the scandals.

But now, in the post-McCarrick era, Catholic laity across the theological board believe it is socially acceptable, and even praiseworthy, to blow the whistle.

Bishop Malone's personal secretary, Siobhan O'Connor, was fond of him. Yet she was the person who released incriminating documents.

Why?

She listened to the victims.

She was never the same afterward. Continue reading

• Jennifer Roback Morse, Ph.D., the founder and president of the Ruth Institute