Re-assigned 15 times, 3 leaves of absence caught by police with 15 yo

[intaglio]

From The Patriot News

The Rev. William Paulish was in Lackawanna County prison, unable to post $50,000 bail Friday. The charges include corruption of a minor, indecent exposure, unlawful contact with a minor, indecent assault and involuntary deviate sexual intercourse with a person under 16. Court records did not list a lawyer for Paulish.

The Times-Tribune of Scranton reported that Paulish, 56, has been reassigned 15 times by the Diocese of Scranton after being ordained in 1988 and has had three separate leaves of absence.

The diocese did not respond to the newspaper's requests to explain the reassignments and absences. In a press release, the diocese said it removed Paulish from his assignment as assistant pastor at Prince of Peace Parish in Old Forge and suspended his ability to work as a priest.

Apparently the accused advertised on Craigslist

[Scuba]

1. Will those who covered up his crimes be charged?

[intaglio]

2. If we're lucky the files will be made available

and the victims and their families will be able to sue the diocese

As for jail time for the enablers? Very doubtful

[skepticscott]

3. But...but

the new pope is going to change all that, right?? As soon as he hears about this, I'm totally sure he will see that the right thing is done..I'm cautiously optimistic, in other words!

[rug]

5. He was assigned to this parish two months ago.

Reverend W. Jeffrey Paulish, from Leave of Absence for Reasons of Health, to Assistant Pastor, Prince of Peace Parish, Old Forge, effective, July 11, 2013.

http://www.dioceseofscranton.org/2013/07/11/clergy-appointments-14/

[rug]

4. Here's the statement from the Diocese of Scranton.

http://www.dioceseofscranton.org/2013/09/20/statement-regarding-reverend-w-jeffrey-paulish/

IDSI is a felony in the first degree and carries a sentence of up to 20 years. He will do state time.

[Goblinmonger]

9. What about his accomplices? n/t

[rug]

11. He was alone in the car with the kid.

I'm sure you're suggesting some form of criminal accomplice liability but that doesn't apply to these facts.

An accomplice must intentionally aid, abet, importune or in some fashion advance the intended criminal act. I expect not even you are suggesting the Bishop of Scranton had as his goal a blowjob in a parking lot.

If there is anything, there is tortious negligence in returning him to a parish. Whether that exists depends entirely on what his "health" reasons were and what treatment he received prior to returning to ministry.

[skepticscott]

16. Why are you limiting this

to legal liability? Anyone in the church who had evidence or knowledge that he was molesting children and did not report it to the proper authorities is morally complicit in any future offenses of that type.

Would you agree or disagree?

[rug]

17. Because the question was about accomplices. That's a legal term.

As to making moral judgments, I rarely make moral judgments, let alone assign future degrees of moral complicity.

I'm not a moralist. Are you?

That said, failure to report compounds the offense and likely allows further offenses. That is wrong.

Making public policy based on morality is dangerous. Would you agree or disagree?

[skepticscott]

20. It's nice to know that you don't make moral jydgements

About priests raping children or the people who enable and abet them. Seems many in the Catholic Church are with you on that.

And I would certainly agree that making public policy based on the moral pronouncements of an organization as morally corrupt as the RCC is a very bad idea.

[rug]

22. The problem with rape, by priest or atheist, is paramountly a legal and social one.

I cringe when people treat it primarily as a moral issue. It is particularly repellent when it is used to make an ulterior, unrelated, point.

So, what organizations do you think should have their moral pronouncements enacted into law?

[rickford66]

6. The penalties?

It will be a slap on the wrist because the Church doesn't have a football team. I'm originally from Scranton and have in the past related cover ups by the Diocese of Scranton and the University of Scranton here on DU.

[cbayer]

7. Despicable. The multiple reassignments would indicate a coverup as well.

[rug]

12. These are his assignments over the past 25 years.

• Sept. 3, 1988 – ordained

• Sept. 9, 1988 – June 19, 1991: assistant pastor, Our Lady of the Snows, Clarks Summit

• June 20, 1991 – Jan. 14, 1992: assistant pastor, Annunciation, Williamsport

• Jan. 15 – June 21, 1992: assistant pastor, St. Cecilia’s, Exeter

• June 22, 1992 – July 6, 1993: assistant pastor, Most Precious Blood, Hazleton

• July 7, 1993 – Jan. 23, 1994: assistant pastor, Sacred Heart, Peckville

• Jan. 24, 1994 – July 4, 2000: chaplain, Little Flower Manor, Wilkes-Barre

• July 5, 2000 – July 5, 2004: pastor at St. Francis Xavier, Friendsville, St. Patrick’s, Middletown, and St. Thomas the Apostle, Little Meadows

• July 6 – Nov. 9, 2004: leave of absence, health reasons

• Nov. 10, 2004 – June 28, 2005: assistant pastor at St. Joseph’s, Minooka, Immaculate Conception and St. John the Baptist, Taylor

• June 29 – Sept. 12, 2005: chaplain, St. Mary’s Villa, Elmhurst

• Sept. 13 – Nov. 8, 2005: assistant pastor, St. Patrick’s, Scranton

• Nov. 9, 2005 – March 24, 2006: leave of absence (no reason listed)

• March 24 – Oct. 11, 2006: residence at St. Cecilia, Exeter

• Oct. 11, 2006 – July 8, 2008: assistant pastor, St. Mary’s, Old Forge

• July 9, 2008 – July 6, 2011: administrator, St. Elizabeth, Bear Creek (and pastor from July 7, 2010 - July 10, 2011)

• July 11, 2011 – Aug. 5, 2012: leave of absence, health reasons

• Aug. 6 – Nov. 14, 2012: assistant pastor, Holy Cross, Olyphant

• Nov. 15, 2012 - July 14, 2013: leave of absence, health reasons

• July 15 - Sept. 20: assistant pastor, Prince of Peace, Old Forge

• Sept. 20: leave of absence pending investigation of alleged sexual misconduct with a minor

The reassignments themselves are unremarkable. But the two assignments at senior facilities (away from teenagers) and the four leaves of absence for euphemistic health reasons are what is telling.

[skepticscott]

14. And what are they telling you?

Don't be afraid to say it straight out.

[rug]

18. It's obvious what those six assignments indicate.

Are you afraid to say it straight out?

Do you find it shocking that there are sex offenders within institutions and that the corporate reflex is to keep it private?

[skepticscott]

21. I'm not the one who said it was "telling", you were

It's your statement and your claim..own it instead of waffling.

[rug]

23. And it is telling. Are you obtuse?

[skepticscott]

24. No, your apologetics are quite clear

as is your attempt to minimize really despicable behavior as much as you can.

[rug]

25. You confuse facts with apologetics.

I suppose, rather than post his assignments and point out six red flags, I could have simply had the usually unproductive snarkfest your posts generate.

[skepticscott]

26. Facts are not much use without the courage

to draw and state the conclusions that they lead to. That's the only confusion involved here.

[rug]

29. Frankly, you are the last person I would consult on matters of courage.

[skepticscott]

33. Even the most non-judgemental

person on the board had no trouble speaking right up and calling this what it is: a despicable covering up and abetting of child molestation. You, on the other hand, have avoided on multiple occasions even the least courageous condemnation, for reasons that are quite clear.

I don't think anyone intelligent will have trouble seeing where courage and moral fortitude is lacking here.

[rug]

34. Do you always type in a stage voice?

Do you think that there is something courageous in calling this despicable? That's obvious.

The problem you have is that you also agree that the religious education of children is child abuse, that religion is a poison and that religious belief is deluded thinking. Et cetera ad nauseam.

Your flat outrage at all things religious and your on cue righteousness diminishes what is in fact despicable about this situation. Given your numerous postings on religion I can hardly credit your moral outrage here.

[cbayer]

15. I suspect they sent him for treatment during all those LOA's.

The problem is, of course, that hard core pedophilia, like all perversions, is extraordinarily difficult to treat.

They really should have never returned him to any place where he had access to children.

[rug]

19. I would be surprised if he wasn't sent here at least once.

http://www.theservants.org/

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Congregation_of_the_Servants_of_the_Paraclete

[dhol82]

27. geeze

you would think that, with so many of these paraclete centers that were opened, the church should have rethought many of it's rules or, at least, admitted that there was a problem somewhere.

it is interesting that they worked with many disabilities but ended up strictly refusing to take on pedophiles.

[cbayer]

28. Fascinating. Some were seeing problems very early on.

While outcomes for chemical dependency are uniformly poor, outcomes for things like pedophilia are abysmal.

When this really started to come out, there were multiple centers that the RCC used to try and rehabilitate priests, but the big mistake they made was returning these priests to locations where they had access to children.

As the founder of this particular organizations noted, "sexual deviants" should have been removed from the priesthood, even if it was against their will. Unfortunately, they swept homosexual activity up into this category and were not making a badly needed distinction.

That may have been part of the problem, as the RCC had been winking at homosexual activity for a long time and correctly saw it as a victimless "crime". Their inability to distinguish this from pedophilia led to a culture that initially treated the two the same, and the outcome became the root of the problem.

[No Vested Interest]

31. The real pity is that this man was ever ordained in the first place.

It they had refused to ordain him, the diocese wouldn't be dealing with this for probably the rest of the man's life, not to mention the pain of his victims, and the monetary price to paid from the offerings of people of good will.

There was apparently a period when some of the seminaries had few students and kept those who showed these tendencies. The church will be paying (literally and figurally) for this bad judgment and problem for decades, despite best attempts to right the wrong currently.

[rug]

32. It looks like problems became apparent five years into his ordination.

If he could not have discerned this was not the life for him, someone else should have.

[trotsky]

8. Reassigned FIFTEEN TIMES.

Absolutely disgusting.

[Goblinmonger]

10. No kidding

As a licensed teacher in Wisconsin, I am a mandatory reporter. If I even thought something like this was happening, I am legally obligated to inform authorities. If I don't, I likely will lose my license and will face legal charges and likely a civil lawsuit. Apparently we don't hold the hierarchy of the church to the same standards that we do educators.

[rug]

13. There should be an additional data base.

http://cjonline.com/opinion/2013-08-16/editorial-sex-offender-teachers-shouldnt-get-free-ride

No professional group should be exempt.

[Politicalboi]

30. And I bet their church is still packed on Sunday's

Show them YOU mean business. STOP going to church. I don't see how catholics can still support these pedophiles. Maybe they don't all do it, but they ALL hide it. Gee, where's the Poop"s chiming in on this. Oh that's right, it's a bad story against their Pedophile Empire.