BUFFALO (NY)
National Catholic Register
Nov. 13, 2019
By Peter Jesserer Smith
The scandalous allegations that have engulfed the Diocese of Buffalo — and especially its center for forming priests, Christ the King Seminary — is sufficiently grave that it triggered a Vatican decision in September to authorize an apostolic visitation of the Diocese of Buffalo.
Now, as Catholics in Buffalo and elsewhere in the U.S. await the findings of that visitation, the Register is publishing an in-depth report on the allegations of a long-standing culture of sexual misconduct at Christ the King, dating back more than 20 years and apparently still present today.
The highest-profile recent scandals involving the seminary include allegations of adult sexual abuse made in September 2018 against Father Joseph Gatto, its then-rector and a longtime member of its formation team, who was chosen by Bishop Richard Malone in 2013 to lead the seminary. Following those allegations, Father Gatto stepped down as rector.
The seminary came under greater scrutiny in April 2019, after a Christ the King employee leaked a report indicating a handful of Buffalo priests, including a Christ the King spiritual director, had invited seminarians to a pizza party and allegedly engaged them there in pornographic, misogynistic and humiliating conversations.
While the seminary acted swiftly to address that situation, seminarians allege they were subjected afterward to retaliation by deacons, priests and employees in the Diocese of Buffalo for reporting the abusive conduct.
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