BUFFALO (NY)
WIVB [Buffalo NY]
July 15, 2026
By Daniel Telvock
For almost seven years, Jeffrey Nowak has not been allowed to practice as a priest for the Diocese of Buffalo after he was accused in 2019 of harassing a former seminarian and inappropriate contact with children.
Over that period of inactivity, Nowak has been investigated twice by the FBI for allegedly accessing websites with photos and videos of sexually exploited children, and last week he was arrested and charged by federal agents with receipt and possession of child pornography.
Through all of this, the Diocese had continued to pay Nowak “a modest monthly stipend”, which a spokesman said is required by Canon Law, an internal system of regulations that govern its operations and discipline. As of Wednesday, the Diocese said, “In light of the abhorrent criminal conduct recently alleged by federal investigators, the Diocese is no longer providing any financial support to Rev. Nowak, who remains incarcerated pending his trial.”
The latest allegations against Nowak have prompted Bishop Michael Fisher to take steps to defrock him and stop the monthly stipends, according to Gregory Tucker, the spokesman for the Diocese of Buffalo.
“Bishop Fisher has now instructed the Diocese’s Judicial Vicar to gather the necessary documentation based on these latest allegations to petition the Vatican’s Dicastery for the Doctrine of the Faith to dismiss Jeffrey Nowak from the clerical state,” Tucker said Tuesday.
The first investigation of Nowak came months after the Diocese suspended him in 2019. The U.S. Attorneys Office says an email linked to Nowak had accessed a website that contained photos and videos of sexually exploited children. In 2021, FBI agents served a warrant to access the email account they believed belongs to Nowak but did not find child pornography. As a result, the FBI closed the investigation in 2023.
In 2025, the U.S. Attorney’s Office received a similar tip, this time from law enforcement in Scotland, that a group of people were using Zoom to view and share child pornography. The FBI linked one of the participants to the username “PigBoy666”, which they alleged was used by Nowak.
In 2026, agents searched Nowak’s home, where federal officials say they seized a cell phone, laptop, USB storage drives, suspected crystal meth, and other items, some of which had several folders with child pornography videos.
At Nowak’s detention hearing Monday, Assistant U.S. Attorney Aaron Mango revealed new evidence of what they discovered on Nowak’s phone and some of the apps he used to allegedly communicate with pedophiles – information that led the judge to keep Nowak in jail.Priest arrested on child porn charge will stay in jail
For example, Mango said agents believe Nowak was on Zoom viewing child pornography when they served the search warrant for his home. Mango said Nowak approached agents naked and had defecated on himself. In Nowak’s bedroom were jugs and open cups of urine and it reeked of bodily fluids, he said. Mango said they found crystal meth and drug pipes shaped like penises. Inside a bible case was a USB drive containing additional pornographic files.
Mango said agents discovered “horrific” videos and “deeply disturbing” conversations that Nowak allegedly had with pedophiles on various phone apps, including Signal, Telegram, and Zoom. Mango said agents found discussions about sexually abusing babies and toddlers, “offering up” young family members to pedophiles, and statements that he would kill his mother if she were still alive because she told him “he could be anything but gay.”
He said Nowak also confessed to agents after a polygraph test.
In addition, some of the material led agents to believe Nowak could have ties to the White Power movement, including evidence that Nowak allegedly shared the manifesto written by Payton Gendron, who is responsible for the massacre at the Tops grocery store on Jefferson Avenue. Nowak denied having any association with the racist movement, according to his attorney.
The material was so disturbing, Mango said, that an expert in this field told him it is “some of the worst she has ever seen in her life.”
Tucker, the spokesman for the Diocese, said Nowak has not been allowed to function as a priest in 2019 but there was no basis for the church to pursue defrocking him. Tucker added that the diocese was not aware of the 2021 and 2025 investigations. It is unclear how long the process of defrocking Nowak will take, as it is determined by the Vatican.
“There were no allegations of sexual abuse or activity with a minor,” Tucker said. “As such, he has been provided a modest monthly stipend as required – much less than an active priest and less than a retired priest.”