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(CNN) - For more than a year, thousands of Catholics in Buffalo, New York, begged, protested and prayed for Bishop Richard Malone to resign. They distributed petitions, held banners in prayer vigils, even tried to find Malone's plane at the airport.
On Wednesday, these Buffalo Catholics finally achieved what they wanted, when the Vatican announced that Pope Francis had accepted Malone's resignation.
Malone issued a statement, attributing his early retirement to the turmoil caused by the crisis of sexual abuse of the clergy of the Catholic Church, and the discord about his response to it.
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The Diocese of Buffalo "will be better served by a new bishop who may be better able to achieve the much needed reconciliation, healing and renewal," he wrote in a letter published by the diocese.
"It is my honest evaluation that I have achieved all that I have been able to do, and that there are still divisions and wounds that I cannot bind and heal," he wrote.
All bishops must submit their resignation to the pope when they turn 75. Malone is 73.
Since the crisis of sexual abuse of the church clergy resumed in 2018, bishops across the country have been subject to greater scrutiny for the crimes and cover-ups that have allegedly occurred under their surveillance. Few faced stronger and more persistent accusations than Malone, who led the diocese of some 600,000 Catholics since 2012.
Both the FBI and the New York attorney general are investigating clergy abuse and cover-ups in the Diocese of Buffalo, according to Buffalo News. The newspaper also reported that more than 220 lawsuits have been filed against the diocese for clergy abuse. Buffalo has already paid survivors of abuse more than $ 175 million through a victim compensation fund.
In October of this year the Holy See announced an investigation to the Diocese of Buffalo whose bishop had been accused of mishandling complaints of sexual abuse. Buffalo Bishop Richard Malone admitted not having "lived up to the standard" in his handling of accusations of sexual abuse against priests, he had refused to resign, even when local Catholics expressed dissatisfaction with his leadership.
The results of that investigation have not been made public. Malone was among a contingent of bishops from the United States who met with Pope Francis last month in Rome as part of the regularly scheduled "ad limina" meetings.
As CNN and other media outlets have reported, Malone kept a secret folder full of names of accused priests in a closet in his office. Many of those names were retained when Malone issued a list of credited priests, a complainant told CNN last year.
A spokeswoman told CNN that the list that Malone published included only priests accused of abusing minors, not those accused of misconduct with adults.
"My handling of the recent claims of some of our parishioners about inappropriate sexual behavior with adults has undoubtedly not met the standard to which it maintains us, and to which we adhere," Malone said last year.
Later, the diocese reviewed its list of priests credibly accused from 42 to 78.
Still, Malone resisted outright his resignation, even when prominent local Catholics and some of his own priests called for his impeachment, insisting that a "shepherd" does not abandon the flock. "
Instead, Edward Scharfenberger, the Bishop of Albany, will temporarily lead the diocese of Buffalo, the Vatican announced.
Scharfenberger will attend both dioceses simultaneously, the diocese of Albany said.
- Rosa Flores and Joe Sutton of CNN contributed to this report.
Sexual abuse in the Church