EAST AURORA, N.Y. (WKBW) — The Diocese of Buffalo announced Thursday that the former Christ the King Seminary is listed for sale.
It ceased operations in 2020 amid allegations of sexual misconduct and financial deficits. The seminary lost about $500,000 per year.
The 200,000 square foot campus on a 117 acre site includes classroom and office space, a 460-seat auditorium, a chapel, library, six dormitories, a commercial kitchen and dining hall, recreation building, and a full gymnasium.
The sale price is $5.3 million.
It was constructed for the diocese in 1961 and originally called St. John Vianney Seminary. The Franciscans took over the site in 1974, before the diocese assumed corporate sponsorship in 1990.
The seminary was blamed for culture of sexual activity among Buffalo priests, according to a seminarian who spoke with 7 News.
Rev. Joseph C. Gatto, then president-rector of Christ the King Seminary, was put on administrative leave by the diocese in 2018 and accused by multiple men of sexual misconduct. The diocese later reinstated Gatto. He denied the allegations but acknowledged spending time at a church "treatment center" in Canada.
The I-Team reported that seminary officials cracked down on seminarians who blew the whistle on a 'pornographic' priest party in 2019.
Rev. Jeffrey Nowak has been on "administrative leave" for over four years. Nowak was ordained at Christ the King Seminary in 2012. He is alleged to have made unwanted sexual advances on at least two seminarians and also made unwanted contact with a diocesan priest, the I-Team previously reported.
In 2020, a Christ the King professor was arrested and sent to federal prison after he threatened to kill a 7 News reporter.
Court documents filed by the diocese indicate that it plans to use money from the sale to settle child sex-abuse lawsuits.
The announcement drew criticism from both survivors and attorneys, as they argued the proposed settlement is an attempt to prevent survivors from pursuing their cases against related non-bankrupt entities and effectively silence survivors.
