The Catholic Diocese of Buffalo announced yesterday in a press release and a Letter to the Faithful that it has reached a settlement with the New York Attorney General in the suit brought against it and two of its former bishops alleging that they mishandled complaints of sexual abuse of minors and vulnerable adults. (See prior posting.) The provisions of the Stipulated Final Order (full text) in People of the State of New York v. Diocese of Buffalo, (SD NY, Oct. 24, 2022) were described by Bishop Michael Fisher in part as follows:
The settlement that the Diocese and the New York Attorney General have agreed to confirms that the rigorous policies and protocols the Diocese has put in place over the past several years are the right ones to ensure that all young people and other vulnerable persons are safe and never at risk of abuse of any kind by a member of the clergy, diocesan employee, volunteer, or member of a religious order serving in the Diocese of Buffalo. At the same time, we have strengthened our Safe Environment policies with the Priest Supervision Program which I implemented in June of last year to account for priests removed from active ministry, and with the additional appointment of a new Child Protection Policy Coordinator. We hope that these initiatives, along with our commitment to producing an additional detailed annual compliance audit by an independent auditor, will provide further evidence of our commitment to the level of accountability and transparency that all Catholic faithful and the broader public rightly deserve and require.
