Hamburg Clergy Rape Victim's Powerful Facebook Post: "the Church Didn’t Really Care"

By Jay Tokasz
Buffalo News
January 17, 2019

https://bitly.com/https:/buffalonews.com/2019/01/17/buffalo-clergy-sex-abuse-harry-king-priest-rape-buffalo-diocese/2HsFaIq

Harry King, 55, first told a Buffalo Diocese administrator in 2002 that the Rev. Donald Becker sexually abused him when King was a teenager in the late 1970s. He spoke to The Buffalo News this past spring, on the condition that his name be kept out of the story.

Now, King is telling the world, with his name attached.

King posted on Facebook this week a raw and powerful 3,800-word essay about the alleged abuse and its effect on his life. In the essay, King reveals his battles with depression and his multiple attempts to kill himself. He discusses what it was like to meet with two retired judges who are determining how much clergy sex abuse victims receive under a diocesan program to compensate victims.

In March, Becker told The News he had not molested any children, although Buffalo Diocese officials said Becker had been removed from ministry in 2003 because of abuse allegations. Days later the diocese said the allegations against Becker were credible.

Please be warned: King’s story is disturbing and includes graphic accounts of the rape of a teenager. We publish King’s story because it gives a rare look at how sexual abuse — and the church’s response — wounded one person, as a teen and for decades.