Below are media reports detailing the diocesan coverup of a priest’s sexual assault upon Rev. Ryszard Biernat when he was a seminarian in 2003.
Fast forward to 2019…For daring to disrupt the sexual predatory culture within the Diocese of Buffalo by whistleblowing, Fr. Biernat was removed from ministry by Bishop Malone– a move upheld by his successor, Bishop Michael Fisher.
While he was a seminarian, Biernat was not permitted (or even encouraged) by diocesan officials to report the sexual assault. Principle officials involved in the abuse report included Auxiliary Bishop Edward Grosz, Monsignor Richard Cunningham (administrator of the diocese) Fr. James Croglio (director of diocesan counseling), Monsignor David LiPuma (vice chancellor), Monsignor Richard Siepka (seminary rector), Rev. Gregory Faulhaber (seminary formation director/instructor of moral theology) and eventually Bishop Edward Kmiec. This list of officials in the know is based on Biernat’s own account which is corroborated with documents and depositions revealed in the New York State Attorney General’s lawsuit against the Diocese of Buffalo and its executives. Fr. Biernat says he was additionally threatened into silence by Auxiliary Bishop Edward Grosz (an allegation which Grosz denies). Such allegations against bishops are supposed to be investigated under Pope Francis’ motu proprio, Vos estis lux mundi.
- The alleged offending priest, Fr. Art Smith, never suffered consequences for this crime against the seminarian which the diocese claimed years later it had substantiated.
- The case was never brought to the attention of civil authorities.
- This case was not brought to the attention of the diocesan attorneys until 2018.
- This case never went before the Diocesan Review Board of laypeople who are supposed to investigate such allegations.
- No diocesan official involved in concealing this case from ecclesial and civil authorities was ever held accountable.
Fast forward to 2013, Fr. Biernat was appointed as secretary to Bishop Richard Malone and vice chancellor of the diocese. In this position, he said he thought he could play a role in weeding out corruption in the way clergy sexual abuse reports were handled. Instead, he found himself working in a system flagrantly covering up such reports, and that system was not going to change under that bishop. So he started making secret audio recordings of the bishop…something he said he regretted he did not do when Bishop Grosz threatened him.
In his official capacity as an officer of the diocese, Fr. Biernat said he witnessed his bishop ignoring a variety of clergy sexual abuse reports (mostly vulnerable adults) or mishandling known sexual predators. In September, 2019, not having any other reasonable avenue available to him to report to competent Church authorities, Fr. Biernat passed his recordings on to investigative reporter, Charlie Specht, at WKBW-tv. These secret recordings revealed Bishop Malone appearing to freely acknowledge the veracity of reports concerning a priest credibly accused of sexual harassment of a seminarian; yet, the bishop refused to pull him from ministry.
In addition to this revelation, Fr. Biernat also made public the sexual assault he suffered as a seminarian. At long last, he revealed Bishop Grosz’s alleged threats to him at the time to keep him from making this known to the public. Specht’s report aired a few weeks before the state attorney general sat down with Bishops Malone and Grosz to question them under oath about their handling of more than two dozen clergy sexual abuse cases specifically tied to one or both of them. Bishop Malone resigned from office (penalty-free) two weeks before his state interrogation. A day before his resignation, December 3, 2019, he removed Fr. Biernat from ministry for whistleblowing to local media. This official Church “penalty” is upheld by his successor, Bishop Michael Fisher, who has the authority to reinstate Fr. Biernat to ministry.
Links to News Media Reports concerning Fr. Biernat’s tragic story
Fr. Ryszard Biernat’s interview with Charlie Spect from WKBW-TV
March 4, 2020
Discussion on Bishop Scharfenberger’s reluctance to re-instate Fr. Biernat into ministry following what was an obvious retaliatory move by the former bishop to remove him from ministry with use of a canonical “Penal Remedy.” The reason for the removal from ministry? Because he revealed secrets. Fr. Biernat states: “In the decree, they cite policies of secrecy, but isn’t that what led us into the trouble that we are in right now?” Biernat said, “Secrecy…that we kept things secret and that everything is OK as long as people don’t find out.”
Fr. Ryszard Biernat’s full interview with Steve Brown from WGRZ-TV
September 6, 2019
Graphic details of abuse by priest when Biernat was a seminarian
video
Bishop Silenced Fr. Ryszard about alleged sexual assault
WKBW, Charlie Spect – September 5, 2019
First news interview concerning this case
video
Ryszard Biernat speaks with WBEN-930
As a radio host talked with WKBW investigative reporter, Charlie Specht, Fr. Ryszard Biernat called in to clarify his story and answer questions.
September 10, 2019
audio: 17 minutes
ABC News report
September 4, 2019
“I am here to serve the people of Western New York the way I can,” said Biernat, who agreed to take a leave of absence from the diocese in August and has until recently lived in the bishop’s official residence. “I feel I have a responsibility to come forward and ask Bishop Malone to please resign. For the love of God and for the sake of your people here, please resign.”
Who is Father Ryszard Biernat, and why would he secretly record Bishop Malone?
Buffalo News By Published |Updated text/photo
Buffalo bishops silenced Fr. Ryszard about alleged sex assault
WKBW Charlie Spect, September 05, 2019
Discloses sexual assault for the first time
Bishop’s Council of the Laity was informed
video
At the Persecuted Priests Summit in June, 2021, Fr. Biernat joined eight other Roman Catholic priests who have been sidelined by their bishops for speaking out against corruption in the Church/their dioceses and/or bishops’ abuse of power. Amidst this discussion, Fr. Biernat revealed what the trauma did to him as a human being suffering from the bishops’ abuse of power, particularly as a seminarian.
Video 1 hr 20 min
Here is a portion of his testimony that speaks to the heart of his concerns: “If you try to disrupt this predatory culture, of course they’re going to get rid of you.”
The Angry Catholic podcast
“Not on my watch!” Episode 108
Fr. Ryszard Biernat is guest of this popular podcast devoted to laity’s response to the clergy sexual abuse crisis. In this discussion, he details not only the abuse he suffered as a seminarian, but the trials working in a corrupt system of complicity with clergy sexual abusers led by our bishops.
6 March 2021
The Angry Catholic podcasts can be accessed on iTunes podcasts, Spotify, and their website TheAngryCatholic.com
51 min.
audio
WBFO-NPR reports
Various reports on him
audio
Exclusive WKBW report on the announcement of the recordings Fr. Ryszard took
WKBW – Charlie Spect
September 4, 2019
video
Bielmo — a multi-part documentary series in Poland (2022)
Episode title: “Abyss of lies.” Marcin Gutowski, senior long-form journalist, Czarno na białym TVN24–Warner Brothers/Discovery. [Polish with English subtitles]
aired October 10, 2022
This television series explores the phenomena of clergy sexual abuse in the Catholic Church in Poland and how church officials were able to protect sexual predators in their dioceses.
The episode, “Abyss of lies,” was devoted entirely to the Diocese of Buffalo which–because of key whistleblowers like Fr. Biernat within chancery offices–provided probably one of the most detailed accounts in the world of just how a Catholic diocese is able to silence victims of clergy sexual abuse and sadistically isolate interior threats to their secret system of operations that ruined people’s lives and destroyed souls.
The documentary producer, Marcin Gutowski, traveled to Buffalo in 2021 to interview not only Fr. Biernat but Siobhan O’Connor and other whistleblowers and clergy sexual abuse survivors for the episode. O’Connor, Bishop Richard Malone’s executive assistant, appeared on 60 Minutes in October, 2018 to explain why she passed on secret diocesan files to a local reporter from WKBW-tv exposing corruption and abuse of power in the way officials handled alleged clergy sexual abusers and their victims. Fr. Ryszard offered specific details about the elaborate filing system designed to protect pedophiles. His account of his experience with diocesan officials covering up his own sexual abuse at the hands of one of their priests is disturbing as it is heartbreaking.
Spectrum News’ series of interviews with Rev. Art Smith in which Smith artfully denies the allegations. These videos speak for themselves.
Fr. Art Smith’s interview with Spectrum News – background to abuse claims
BY MARK GOSHGARIAN CITY OF BUFFALO
UPDATED 8:27 PM ET SEP. 12, 2019
Amidst background to abuse claims, Smith artfully denies allegations.
Spectrum News’ extensive interview with Art Smith Part I
BY MARK GOSHGARIAN BUFFALO
UPDATED 9:24 PM ET SEP. 13, 2019
An alleged victim (his nephew) is also interviewed. “I Believe, in the depths of my being, that I have been accused falsely,” says Smith. Like ex-Cardinal McCarrick, he chooses his words carefully. In fact, the two interviews (McCarrick’s and Smith’s) are strikingly similar.
Spectrum News’ extensive interview with Fr. Art Smith Part 2
By Mark Goshgarin
8:21PM ET September 16, 2019
In this interview, Smith expresses breathless gratitude to Bishop Malone for re-instating him back in ministry after Bishop Kmiec finally removed him from ministry a full seven years after the 2004 alleged molestation of the seminarian and only upon evidence that he groomed an 8th grader. “He gave me my life back,” Smith said, without being challenged by the interviewer with the fact (via Malone’s testimony to the Vatican) that Smith went on to sexually harass two young men in his very first assignment by Malone.
Two other alleged victims of Smith’s abuse were also interviewed in this report including Smith’s own nephew and Fr. Biernat. Both men were pressed in the interview to go into graphic details of their alleged assaults. Palpable to anyone with a pulse is the grueling humiliation envisaged on the faces of these grown men torn to pieces by a corrupt team assembled through time to suppress their due justice and block the path in their journey to regain their human dignity.
More casualties of the diocesan war to keep up appearances.
Fr Ryszard’s initial confirmation of abuse to congregation
Buffalo News Published |
text, photo
Following Fr. Biernat’s leaked recordings in 2019, Bishop Malone and internet trolls shamelessly introduced baseless allegations designed to harm Fr. Biernat’s reputation and deflect attention from the bishop’s malfeasance.