Parishioners ask pope for inquiry into Buffalo Diocese bishop [Video]

BUFFALO, N.Y. — If the love of money is the root of all evil, as the Bible says, then Michael Taheri believes the Catholic Diocese of Buffalo has fallen victim.

This week, Taheri and four other Catholic parishioners sent a letter to Pope Francis asking for an inquiry into Bishop Michael Fisher of the Buffalo Diocese for causing “adverse, long-term, and irreparable harm to the Catholic laity.”

“This bishop’s message is always money, money, economics,” Taheri said. “He needs to feel the suffering like Jesus on the cross, get up there and really make his case as to why he made that decision.”

Those decisions, Taheri tells 2 On Your Side, have been focused on finances over faith, forcing churches and schools across the diocese to close.

The closures come in response to $15 million in legal fees stemming from 900 clergy sexual abuse …