Former Batavia Priest on list of Child Molestors
Written by WBTA STAFF on March 20, 2018
The Diocese of Buffalo has released the names of 42 diocesan priests who were removed, retired or had left the ministry after allegations of sexual abuse of a minor.
The list included 24 deceased priests who had more than one allegation made against them.
George Richert Director of Communications for the Diocese of Buffalo who released the list said 10 of the priests were already dead before the diocese was made aware of any allegations.
The second name on the list was former St. Mary’s Priest in Batavia Donald Becker.
Becker was a priest in Batavia for 12 years and has denied allegations made by three men accusing him abusing them as children.
Becker retired in 2003 allegedly for medical reasons.
That was one year after church leaders signed the Charter for Protecting God’s Children according to Communications Director Richert.
He said a lot has been done about the alleged abuse since the charter was enacted.
He added that there were over 1,000 priests working for the diocese over the past 50 years and he believes that the list accounts for less than four percent of those priests.
Richert went on to say that even one report of abuse is too many.
To give you an idea of how much 4 percent is in relation to the general public, according to the National Center for Missing & Exploited Children there are approximately 750,000 registered sex offenders is the U.S. with a population of 325.7 million or around 0.23 percent of the general population.
