NEW YORK
Buffalo News
By Dan Herbeck | April 9, 2018
A priest who taught students at two Buffalo-area Catholic high schools for more than a decade was suspended from any public ministry in 2014 after he was accused of sexually abusing a minor, The Buffalo News confirmed this week.
The Rev. Michael M. Lewandowski, now 71, was suspended after the allegation was made in May 2014, according to the Catholic Diocese of Altoona-Johnstown, Pa.
The Franciscan priest lived in the Buffalo area and taught at St. Francis High School in Hamburg and at Cardinal O’Hara High School in the Town of Tonawanda at various times from 1976 to 1991, according to directories published by the Catholic Diocese of Buffalo. While the complaint made against Lewandowski alleges that the misconduct occurred during the period of time when he was at the two Buffalo area high schools, Buffalo Diocese officials declined to say whether the alleged abuse took place in the Buffalo area.
“While it does appear that Fr. Lewandowski spent all of the 1980s here in WNY, I can not elaborate on any specifics as it relates to whether (or when) accusations were brought to our attention, and where any alleged activity would have occurred,” diocese spokesman George Richert told The Buffalo News in an email.
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