Buffalo Diocese says retired priest abused a child

The Rev. Joseph E. Vatter, 71, who retired in 2022 as pastor of St. Paul Parish in Kenmore but continued to occasionally celebrate Mass at various churches, had been on leave since February after an abuse allegation was reported. 

The diocesan review board, a group of clergy and lay Catholics appointed by Bishop Michael Fisher, determined that a claim that Vatter “had abused a minor female” had been “substantiated.” Fisher accepted that recommendation, the news release said. 

Dioceses across the country have put in place review boards to help bishops handle child sex abuse allegations.

Buffalo Diocese officials did not say when the alleged incident occurred, but it appears to be separate from an allegation involving a man that was reported by The Buffalo News in 2022.   

In September 2022, a Rochester area man, Robert Kapal, told The News that Vatter had abused him in 1980 when he was a 9-year-old altar boy at St. Christopher Church in the Town of Tonawanda.

Diocesan records obtained by The News show the church in 2004 received an abuse complaint about Vatter, but the diocese determined in 2005 that there was “no basis” to the accusation. Another internal diocese document says that Vatter had been accused in 2004 of molesting Kapal in 1980.