BUFFALO (NY)
WGRZ-TV [Buffalo NY]
January 27, 2026
By Charlie Specht and Sean Mickey
Survivor statements began Tuesday, nearly seven years after the Diocese filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy
Nearly seven years after the Catholic Diocese of Buffalo filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection, abuse survivors finally had their day in court on Tuesday.
It was a heavy feeling in U.S. Bankruptcy Court in downtown Buffalo on Tuesday when abuse survivors shared horrifying details about when they were raped as children by priests and nuns who were supposed to be counseling them and helping them.
Michael Whalen of South Buffalo, who was the first survivor to go public in 2018, spoke first, saying he wanted survivors to know they are not alone.
“Where was the diocese?” Whalen asked. “Has anyone from the diocese cried with survivors? I have.”
Whalen was abused by Fr. Norbert Orsolits, an admitted pedophile, in the 1980s at St. John Vianney Catholic Church in Orchard Park.
Gary Astridge, 69, said he was raped by Fr. Edward Townsend between the ages of 7 and 11.
Astridge showed a picture of himself at that age to Judge Carl Bucki and Bishop Michael Fisher, who was in attendance.
“Just think of yourself as a child and how sexual abuse just screws you up,” Astridge said. “It changes the wiring in your head.”
One survivor of sexual abuse by a nun – who was a younger man and who was only identified by his claim number – said he came forward when he learned former Bishop Richard J. Malone was “dismissive” of abuse still being a problem in Buffalo.
He said he was grateful the court provided him with “the dignity of listening, something so many of us were deprived of for years.”
Ann Fossler said she was abused as a young girl decades ago by Fr. John Ryan at Queen of Heaven Church in West Seneca.
“It has taken me 68 years, but I have finally found my voice and strengthened my spine,” Fossler said.
She criticized the diocese for spending money on high-priced consultants and public relations professionals during the bankruptcy process.
Fisher, who was appointed bishop after Malone’s resignation in 2019, released a written statement saying, “This is a long-awaited moment for those who have endured the devastating trauma of sexual abuse to speak and be heard…It’s my hope that this opportunity provides victim-survivors a sense of justice, however painful it is for them to recount their experiences. We remain committed to doing everything we can to support their healing.”
Kevin Brun thanked Fisher “for having the guts to be here” but he criticized Malone and retired Auxiliary Bishop Edward M. Grosz as “a disgrace to the vows they took” for concealing the actions of more than 100 priests in Buffalo who have been accused of sexual abuse.
Neither Grosz nor Malone, who remains a bishop in good standing in the Catholic Church and who lives in a house in a cemetery owned by the diocese, attended the hearings.
Brun said he was abused by the late Fr. Art Smith, whom Malone returned to ministry after a previous bishop, Edward Kmiec, restricted him from ministry.
Some survivors like Joe Cercone had cases that were much more recent.
Cercone is a 23-year-old man who said he was abused by Fr. Robert Yetter at St. Mary’s of Swormville in 2015, when he was 13 years old.
Yetter died in 2021, three years after my reporting exposed how Malone allowed Yetter to remain pastor of St. Mary’s despite multiple allegations of sexual misconduct.
Cercone said the abuse occurred in the sound-proof confessional that Yetter helped design when the church was built.
‘“There was the traditional kind of wall, and as soon as he would hear my voice, he would say, ‘oh, Joe,’ and then he would make me move from that wall to sitting in front of him,” Cercone said in an interview with 2 On Your Side. “But then, you know, when he starts moving his hand up my leg and, you know, and kissing me…it’s a lot.”
Cercone at one point attempted suicide but with the help of his family, spoke out about the abuse and has started his journey toward healing.
His account also calls into question the diocese’s narrative of child abuse being a decades-old problem of the past. There are multiple men who say Yetter groped them when they were young parishioners.
“It’s not just me,” Cercone said. “I know there’s people…that haven’t said anything, and I encourage those people to say something because it is a weight lifted off your shoulders, not just emotionally, but physically,” Cercone said.