Buffalo Diocese says it is cutting off financial support for priest accused of ‘abhorrent’ crimes

The Diocese of Buffalo, New York, has cut a priest off from financial support and is seeking his removal from the clerical state after federal investigators accused him of “abhorrent criminal conduct,” the diocese said this week.

The U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Western District of New York said in July that Father Jeffrey Nowak of Lackawanna, New York, had been arrested and charged with both the receipt and possession of child pornography.

Nowak had been placed on administrative leave by the diocese in 2019 amid allegations that he had sexually harassed a seminarian. Bishop Michael Fisher, who was appointed to the diocese in 2021, subsequently told Nowak that his priestly faculties in the diocese would not be reinstated and that he would advise other bishops not to accept Nowak in their own dioceses.

In a July 15 statement, the diocese pointed out that it was required by canon law to “provide some level of financial sustenance” to Nowak, even though he was not in active ministry. But after the “abhorrent criminal conduct” of which Nowak was accused this month, the diocese said it was “no longer providing any financial support” to the priest.

In addition, 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,” the statement said.

The diocese had previously not made such a petition due to “no allegation of child sexual abuse or other criminal allegation,” the statement said.

In its statement, the diocese noted that its financial support of Nowak was “considerably less than what an active priest receives and also less than what a retired priest receives.”

Nowak is facing up to 20 years in prison on the child pornography charges. In announcing Nowak’s arrest earlier in July, U.S. Attorney Michael DiGiacomo said the priest “hid behind a keyboard and took part in the tragic exploitation of one of society’s most vulnerable populations, our children.”

“Nowak has now been exposed and can no longer hide and will be held accountable for his disgraceful behavior,” the prosecutor said.