News Story of the Day

By Aaron Besecker, March 27, 2018, Buffalo News

The Catholic Diocese of Buffalo's decision to publicly name its priests who had credible allegations of sexual abuse involving a minor will be followed by one neighboring diocese, but not by  another.

After the Buffalo Diocese released on March 20 a list of 42 priests accused of abusing minors, the Catholic Diocese of Erie, Pa., said it plans to release its own list of accused priests in the coming weeks, the Erie Times-News reported last week.

But the Diocese of Syracuse has not changed its position about withholding the names of accused priests despite what the Buffalo diocese has done, according to newyorkupstate.com.

BY COLIN MIXSON, March 26, 2018, Brooklyn News

Locals sexually abused by Catholic clergy in the Diocese of Brooklyn have one more week to apply for the fund set up to compensate those victims.

Diocesan leaders set a new deadline of March 31 to report incidents in order to be eligible for money from the program, after announcing the fund in June 2017.

Last December, a flock of legal eagles released a list of Kings County’s corrupt Catholic priests that they hoped will encourage sexual-abuse victims to apply for compensation before it’s too late, according to one of the lawyers.

By Ty Tagami, The Atlanta Journal-Constitution, March 9, 2018

A Georgia legislative proposal to give adult survivors of childhood sexual abuse more time to sue pedophiles and organizations has encountered opposition from the Catholic Church.

A lobbyist for the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Atlanta proposes gutting a bill that would extend the statute of limitations for lawsuits and make it easier to sue entities that harbored pedophiles.

The Archdiocese is led by a clergyman who was in charge of the U.S. Catholic church’s response in the early 2000s to the priest pedophilia scandal and who has publicly spoken out for justice for the victims.

By KATRINA FULLER, March 25, 2018, The Post-Journal

The shudder of an unsavory case first unearthed in Boston about 16 years ago is still being felt today, even in Western New York.

In January 2002, a secret world of child sex abuse was uncovered in the Catholic Church by a special team of investigative reporters at the Boston Globe known as the “Spotlight Team.”

Buffalo and the surrounding areas felt the reverberations this past week after the Buffalo Diocese released a list of 42 priests who had been removed from ministry, retired or had left ministry after allegations of sexual abuse of a minor. Many of those named in the list served in churches in Chautauqua and Cattaraugus counties.

By James Dearie, March 22, 2018, National Catholic Reporter

SAGINAW, MICHIGAN — After a sting operation resulted in the arrest of a Saginaw diocese priest in late February, another priest has been suspended amid reports of sexual misconduct, and diocesan property has been raided by the police.

Fr. Ronald J. Dombrowski, 72, a sacramental minister at Holy Family Parish in Saginaw, was suspended over the weekend after an adult contacted the diocese claiming to have suffered abuse by the priest as a child, the Midland Daily News reported March 19.

Dombrowski is not allowed to present himself as a priest publicly or have contact with people under 21 while the case progresses. He has not been charged with a crime.

By Aaron Besecker, March 20, 2018, Buffalo News

Bishop Richard J. Malone on Tuesday released the names of priests who have been accused of sexual misconduct with minors.

"The following list identifies diocesan priests who were removed from ministry, were retired or left ministry after allegations of sexual abuse of a minor," the diocese said. The list includes deceased priests with more than one allegation made against them. Priests who are deceased have their year of death listed next to their name, the diocese said.

By Michael Kransz, March 17, 2018, M Live Michigan

SAGINAW, MI -- Another longtime priest in the Catholic Diocese of Saginaw has been suspended amid sexual abuse allegations, according to a statement from the diocese.

The Rev. Ronald J. Dombrowski, 72, was recently suspended as a "precautionary measure" after a person told the diocese on Thursday, March 15, that Dombrowski allegedly sexually abused them when they were a minor, according to the statement.

By Charlie Specht, March 16, 2018, WKBW I-Team

BUFFALO, N.Y. (WKBW) - - A longtime priest in the Catholic Diocese of Buffalo was forced out of service and put on “medical leave” in 2002 after allegations of child sexual abuse came to light, the 7 Eyewitness News I-Team has learned.

Until now, the Rev. Donald W. Becker has never been named publicly as an alleged child sex abuser even though victims have come forward with stories of abuse and the reverend has long had a poor reputation among some diocesan priests. 

By REESE DUNKLIN and JUSTIN PRITCHARD, AP News, March 15, 2018

The three military fathers sat at the commander’s conference table on the U.S. Army base in Germany, pleading for help.

They told the commander that their daughters were among a half-dozen girls sexually assaulted by a boy in their first-grade class at the base school. The principal had known about the boy’s behavior for months, they said, but the abuse continued.

The girls’ parents had already turned to Army police, military child-abuse authorities and sex-assault specialists. The response throughout the U.S. military’s vast support structure was always the same, they said: Sorry this has happened; there’s nothing we can do.