Possible triggers follow
We have yet another case of a Catholic priest molesting kids--this one out of Pennsylvania. Late Thursday night, a priest was caught at Penn State's branch campus in Dunmore, near Scranton, having sex with a 15-year-old boy in his car.
The Rev. W. Jeffrey Paulish was charged with one felony count of involuntary deviate sexual intercourse and one felony count of unlawful contact with a minor after Dunmore police say they found him and the boy on Thursday in a car on the Worthington Scranton campus of Penn State University, according to the complaint.
Paulish, 56, of Scranton, was also charged 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.
Dunmore police officers say they discovered Paulish and the boy after responding to a call of a suspicious vehicle, according to an arrest warrant affidavit filed with the court.
Allegedly Paulish told police he was at the campus working on his homily when he met the teen, who he said was in emotional distress, and began counseling him.
According to the affidavit, he later admitted to police that he had arranged the meeting with the teen through the "casual encounters" section of Craigslist. Paulish told investigators that he had asked the boy three times if he was over the age of 18, the affidavit said.
Paulish was serving as assistant pastor of Prince of Peace Catholic Church in Old Forge, but has been temporarily stripped of his priestly duties. The Diocese of Scranton is cooperating fully with the investigation, and is urging any victims to come forward.
However, if a story from Friday's edition of The (Scranton) Times-Tribune is to be believed, there are almost certainly more victims--a lot of them. Apparently Paulish has spent the better part of his career counseling troubled youths.
The Rev. Paulish was ordained in the Diocese of Scranton in 1988. His first assignment was as an assistant pastor at Our Lady of the Snows in Clarks Summit from Sept. 9, 1988, to June 19, 1991. Previously, he worked at Lourdesmont and at a guidance clinic in Massachusetts. Phone messages to Lourdesmont were not returned.
As a priest, he had five reassignments in his first 5½ years, ending up as chaplain at Little Flower Manor in Wilkes-Barre from Jan. 24, 1994, until July 4, 2000, the most stable period of his career, according to information provided by the diocese.
Over the next 13 years the Rev. Paulish was moved another nine times.
He spent two years and one month on three separate leaves of absence. Two were accounted for by the diocese as health-related. The reason for the other was not specified.
The diocese did not respond to an emailed request to explain why the Rev. Paulish was moved so frequently, and the reason for the unexplained leave.
Paulish has actually been involved with youth for over three decades. He began working at Lourdesmont, a youth facility in Clarks Summit, in 1983--five years before becoming a priest.
I have a bad feeling that we could be looking at a list of victims that is at least as long as the list of those molested by Jerry Sandusky.
Mon Sep 23, 2013 at 5:35 AM PT: SInce this is still on the rec list, I have to wonder--why didn't the national media look into where Paulish had previously been? That's an important angle, given the past history of pedophile priests being shunted around.