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Buffalo Catholic Diocese Deacon Paul Snyder requests donations be returned

Buffalo businessman and Buffalo Catholic Church Deacon, Paul Snyder, sent a letter to Bishop Richard Malone requesting money donated to "Upon this Rock" campaign fundraiser be returned.

BUFFALO, NY-- Buffalo businessman and Buffalo Catholic Church Deacon, Paul Snyder, sent a letter to Bishop Richard Malone requesting money donated to "Upon this Rock" campaign fundraiser be returned.

The "Upon this Rock" campaign raised more than $100 million dollars for ministries and programs within the Catholic church in Western New York according to Snyder's letter.

Snyder sent the three page letter to Bishop Malone Monday and said, "I can no longer in good conscience contribute to the campaign." He went on to say in the letter, "I respectfully demand that the Diocese return the donations I made to the Campaign over the last two years."

It is not made clear how much money Snyder donated.

Snyder points to a 2017 letter that Father Robert M. Yetter wrote to Auxillary Bishop Edward Grosz, who was at the time, handling the sexual abuse crisis in the diocese, warning that "any pastoral changes at St. Mary's would be sensitive..., as the parish is number 2 in the diocese for contributions to "Upon this Rock."

2 On Your Side spoke with Snyder last week when he once again had strong words and called on the Bishop to resign.

"These words- cunning, arrogant, vindictive, words that were shared with me from his parishioners in other diocese are words that should not be used for Bishops. Those are used for criminals," said Snyder in an interview with 2 On Your Side.

2 On Your Side also spoke with Snyder on Monday night about the press conference.

"He seemed only concerned about protecting his own job, protecting his own reputation, and protecting the $100 million that they have taken from people like myself, and in my view, at least as I'm concerned, they did it under false pretense,"said Snyder. "I felt uncomfortable because it was a high pressure tactic, and I was uncomfortable with the fact that there were not enough explanations or details provided to me about how this money was going to be used."

Snyder says he gave $3,000 to $5,000 and says he never got an answer about where the money was specifically going.

You can read Snyder's full letter here:

Paul Snyder's letter to Bishop Malone by WGRZ-TV on Scribd

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