The diocese publicized the priests’ returns to ministry by stating that a review board had examined the claims and found them to be “not substantiated.”
Updating results
The number of claims was double the largest number ever filed in the more than 20 prior diocese bankruptcies in the U.S. since 2004.
A Buffalo man, identified only as John Doe in the lawsuit, alleged that Child & Family Services was negligent in not preventing him from being abused by at least six employees, on 50 to 70 occasions, from 1978 to 1980 at Conners Children’s Center.
Retired Auxiliary Bishop Edward M. Grosz, who for many years played a key role in the handling of sex abuse complaints against priests in the Buffalo Diocese, is accused in a lawsuit of sexually assaulting a 15-year-old boy after a confirmation service in 1990.
Buffalo Diocese officials are pleading with a judge to speed up its reorganization by reducing the time childhood sex abuse victims can file claims.
Victims of childhood sex abuse will now have until next August to file lawsuits under New York’s Child Victims Act.