Stop Child Abuse Now (SCAN) - 2250

Tonight's special guest is Siobhan O'Connor from Buffalo, New York, a whistleblower and activist. Although not a survivor, Siobhan shared pertinent Chancery documents with several media outlets to expose the abuse cover-up within the Buffalo Diocese, which had been perpetuated by Bishop Richard J. Malone, for whom she had been an executive assistant for 3 years. As Siobhan relates, “my conscience compelled me to turn to the media to expose the coverup of priests who had abused children and adults (including at least one seminarian). My observations of Bishop Malone taught me that the media was the only effective tool at my disposal to rapidly alert the lay faithful about priests with credible accusations in their midst and to prompt a change in how the diocese handles these cases. In addition to sharing the documents with the media, I have also provided them to the FBI and other law enforcement agencies. I was a keynote speaker at this summer's SNAP Conference and a panelist at the Religious News Association Conference [in September 2019]". Siobhan is now focused on advocacy for survivors of clerical sexual abuse and the reform of the Church to which she still belongs. She explains, “The reality of what I witnessed left me with no other option because at the end of my life, I'm not going to answer to Bishop Malone. I am going to answer to God.”