BUFFALO (NY)
WIVB TV
Sept. 9, 2019
By Daniel Telvock
Rev. Ryszard Biernat can calmly discuss the sexual abuse complaint he filed in 2004 against a priest, but it is how he says Auxiliary Bishop Edward Grosz handled the situation that brings him to tears.
Biernat, the second whistleblower from the diocese who took a leave of absence last month as the bishop’s priest secretary, told News 4 Investigates that both Grosz and Bishop Richard Malone should be removed from their positions.
Biernat said Grosz “blackmailed” him in 2004 when he filed the abuse complaint by allegedly saying to him that he needed to keep quiet about the incident if he wanted to be ordained.
When Biernat told another priest about that meeting, he said Grosz called him moments later to remind him that he must not discuss the abuse with others.
“That meeting and his phone call crushed me,” said a tearful Biernat.
“It got at me, I became like a shell of a person and I think it was not only what he said but what he stood for. Not only he was not willing to hear my hurt, was not willing to listen to what happened to me, but to threaten and blackmail me?”
The diocese, in a statement Monday, said Grosz “categorically denies the statement that he threatened to block seminarian Ryszard’s ordination as reported.”
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