BUFFALO (NY)
Buffalo News
March 3, 2020
By Sean Kirst
Bankrupt.
The word has a new imperative for the Buffalo Diocese, which last week sought protection in federal court after 260 men and women went to court over the past six months under the state’s Child Victims Act, alleging they were abused by Catholic clergy or staff in Western New York.
Yet Michael Eames, 60, has his own definition of bankruptcy.
He learned it at 15, through the behavior of a priest Eames describes as “a wolf.”
Eames is one of 15 men who have filed Child Victims Act lawsuits maintaining they were abused as youths by Donald Becker, who is now 77 and living in retirement in Florida. The sheer number of CVA allegations against Becker, who has never faced criminal charges, dwarfs those of any other priest from greater Buffalo, living or dead.
Diocesan officials say they removed Becker from active ministry in 2003 because of credible evidence of abuse. They reached a settlement with another Becker accuser even before the Child Victims Act process began. According to court documents, the diocese is not providing Becker with any legal help against his accusers.
Becker, for his part, has publicly denied sexually abusing children.
“No, I did not,” Becker told Dan Herbeck of The News, two years ago this month. “Certainly not sexual. … This is quite shocking.”
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