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Buffalo Diocese criticized in grand jury report

A grand jury report in Pennsylvania regarding sex abuse allegations involving hundreds of priests takes a shot at the Buffalo Diocese.

BUFFALO, N.Y. - A grand jury report in Pennsylvania regarding sex abuse allegations involving hundreds of priests takes a shot at the Buffalo Diocese.

Reverend Michael Freeman is a former Buffalo priest who was moved from local parishes to Pennsylvania, and all the while the local diocese knew he had admitted to inappropriate sexual behavior with children while in Buffalo.

According to the Pennsylvania Attorney General's report, there is no evidence the Buffalo Diocese alerted police.

He served at several local churches and according to the report, he "admitted prior sexual misconduct" at St. Margaret and St. Lawrence churches in Buffalo. He also worked at Bishop Turner High School, Reverend Freeman who died in 2010.

We did get this statement from Bishop Malone today:

"The Diocese of Buffalo is committed to learning from the sins and crimes of the past and from the ways they were handled. I share in the sense of horror at the magnitude of damage wrought on victims by ministers of the church who, of all people, should be eminently trustworthy. It's a different church now in the way we respond to any claims of abuse."

The nearly one-thousand page report claims Buffalo first became aware of Freeman's criminal activity

in 1981, but routinely covered it up to avoid criminal charges against priests.

Some local attorneys who represent victims want the new york state attorney general to conduct a statewide probe.

You can review that nearly one-thousand page report below:

Pa Grand Jury Priest by WGRZ-TV on Scribd

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