"3 NY priests suspended after seminarians report ‘unspeakably gross’ conversation"

"Three Diocese of Buffalo priests have been suspended from ministry following reports from seminarians that the priests took part in vulgar, 'pornographic' conversations at a party at a parish rectory earlier this month. Two other priests have also been disciplined for not doing enough to stop the inappropriate conversation.

Vile and graphic language; crude humor; disparaging comments about others; and tales of sexual activity of a parishioner, one of the seminarian’s parents, and seminary priests — including how one priest had likened a sex act to receiving Communion — were all part of the seminarians’ complaints over the April 11 party with seminarians and priests at Saints Peter & Paul Parish Rectory in Hamburg, New York.

Specifics were reported Monday evening by the local ABC affiliate WKBW Buffalo and updated Tuesday morning with word of the additional two priests being reprimanded.

The report cites and contains the full document of notes on the seminarians’ complaints. The news station states that the document was independently confirmed as authentic by a seminary employee and posts it with warning of 'descriptions of graphic sexual content described by seminarians to their superiors at Christ the King Seminary in the Diocese of Buffalo.'

Readers are cautioned for sexual content in both the news report and the document contained within.

'These guys are terribly corrupt,' a seminary employee told the news station, asking to remain anonymous for fear of retribution. 'What happened was disgusting. Absolutely repulsive.'

The employee described a clear divide among seminarians who feel compelled to speak up about such conversations, especially given the state’s sexual harassment laws, and some older priests to whom these stories are not new...

Additionally, one of the three suspended priests 'is a designated spiritual director appointed by Christ the King Seminary for seminarians,' the document noting the seminarians’ complaint states. 'Several seminarians expressed concerns about this.'

Many seminarians said this was not just locker room talk. According to the document, one said the priests needed to go to Confession and expressed disgust to the point of feeling the need to shower 'after being exposed to such vulgarity.' One termed the conversation at the party as 'pornographic,' and another said that it was 'worse than Boston,' invoking the locale from where the Church’s sex abuse scandal first exploded.

The three priests did not respond to the news outlet’s requests for an interview, and Father John Staak, interim president-rector of the seminary, declined a request for an interview...

Buffalo’s Bishop Richard Malone placed Father Arthur Mattulke, pastor of Saints Peter & Paul in Hamburg, and the spiritual director for Christ the King seminarians, Father Patrick O'Keefe, parochial vicar for Saints Peter & Paul, and Father Robert Orlowski, pastor of Our Mother of Good Counsel in Blasdell, on 'a temporary leave of absence from their parish assignments while disciplinary actions are taken.'

Currently, the Diocese of Buffalo statement said, the disciplinary and corrective actions include psychological evaluations and possible treatment, retraining in sexual harassment policies, and individual retreats. Pending the results of these steps and additional investigation, it said, 'further actions may be taken.'...

Malone has faced criticism since August of last year, when his former secretary leaked confidential diocesan files showing that Malone had suppressed the names of priests accused of sexual abuse and had allowed accused priests to remain in ministry.

The criticism was further fueled in March, when Malone reinstated a priest caught twice with gay pornography, including porn involving 'sexual acts between men and male teenagers,' with the explanation that 'allegations of child sexual abuse' against the priest 'have not been substantiated.' The decision, Malone said in a statement, was based on investigators’ reports and the advice and recommendations of the independent Diocesan Review Board."