BUFFALO (NY)
Buffalo News
September 12, 2018
By Jay Tokasz
A Buffalo Diocese priest who serves as the bishop’s secretary told parishioners at a Mass this past weekend that he was a victim of sexual abuse by a priest, according to one worshiper.
The Rev. Ryszard S. Biernat confirmed to The Buffalo News that he revealed to the congregation of St. John the Baptist Church in the Town of Tonawanda that he had been abused.
But he declined to comment further about what happened to him.
Biernat, 37, has told other people in the diocese that a veteran Buffalo priest sexually harassed and abused him when Biernat was in seminary studying for the priesthood.
Biernat did not name the priest in his remarks at St. John the Baptist Church. The News has learned that the priest was suspended from ministry and is not active in a parish.
Biernat gave his brief remarks at the end of the Mass after the Rev. Michael J. Parker, pastor of St. John the Baptist parish, read a statement to the congregation from Bishop Richard J. Malone that apologized for the bishop’s failures in adequately addressing the clergy sexual abuse crisis in the Buffalo Diocese.
Biernat, expressing empathy for victims of clergy sex abuse, encouraged victims of abuse to talk with him.
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