commentary by Patrick H. Moore
Apparently the University Park Penn State campus where Jerry Sandusky preyed on vulnerable young boys is not the only branch of the huge state university where sexual deviants work overtime to molest under-aged boys. The latest sex scandal to plague the beleaguered university occurred on Thursday when Dunmore police discovered a Catholic priest, the Rev. W. Jeffrey Paulish, having sex in a car with a 15-year-old boy on the Worthington Scranton campus of Penn State University in the northeastern part of the state.
Kevin Conlon of CNN has the story:
According to an arrest warrant affidavit filed with the court in Lackawanna County, Dunmore police officers say they discovered Paulish and the boy in the car after responding to a call reporting a suspicious vehicle. When the police arrived to investigate, they discovered that the boy was wearing no pants.
Paulish initially told the arresting officers that he was at the campus working on his homily when he met the teen, who was in emotional distress. The Reverend then began counseling him, which, if you believe his story, somehow segued into an act of “deviate sexual intercourse.” There is no obvious connection between “emotional distress” and “sexual intercourse”, whether “deviate” or otherwise, a fact which did not go unnoticed by law enforcement. It is unclear whether the police “leaned on” Rev. Paulish to get him to come clean. What we do know is that according to the affidavit, the Reverend later admitted to the police that he had arranged the meeting with the teen through the “casual encounters” section of Craigslist. In what is possibly another “little white lie,” Paulish told the investigators that he had asked the boy three times if he was over the age of 18. Although the affidavit is apparently silent as to the boy’s response, Paulish seems to be implying that the boy answered in the affirmative.
The Reverend, who is 56 — a mere 41 year age difference — was charged with one felony count of involuntary deviate sexual intercourse and one felony count of unlawful contact with a minor along with three misdemeanor counts — indecent contact with a person under 16, indecent exposure, and corruption of a minor. He is being held at the Lackawanna County jail on $50,000 bail.
The Diocese of Scranton released a statement saying Paulish has been removed from his post at the Prince of Peace parish and has been suspended from acting in the capacity of a priest. The diocese also pledged its cooperation with the investigation, and stated that anyone who “may have been sexually abused by Father Paulish or any member of the clergy” should notify the district attorney’s office.
“I wish to acknowledge how unsettling this is to me personally and to countless others, that yet again a priest has been involved in such inappropriate, immoral and illegal behavior,” said the Rev. Joseph Bambera, the Bishop of Scranton, in a prepared statement.
The Bishop also requested that the faithful of the Diocese join him in praying for the victim and all victims who are impacted by child sexual abuse.
Here is a homily published by Rev. Paulish on October 13, 2012:
“It’s easier for a camel to get through the eye of a needle…” We’re loaded down with so many things, and attached to so many things, from physical possessions to hurtful feelings, that keep us from entering the kingdom. Only by detaching ourselves from our possessions–the things that possess us–and attaching ourselves to God alone may we enter the kingdom.”
Click here to hear Rev. Paulish’s gospel and homily to his congregation: