The world is just not his cloister.
The Archdiocese of New York has stripped suspected crooked cleric Father Pawl Bielecki of his “priestly colleges,” officers stated.
The conman generally known as “Father Paul” and dubbed Friar Tummy Tuck used no less than $650,000 in phony charity donations to fund a lavish life-style and cosmetic surgery, in accordance with the feds.
Bielecki claimed he ran medical clinics in war-torn Lebanon, however he was 5,600 miles away in Manhattan. For the previous eight years, the priest preyed on the compassionate, soliciting donations on native radio reveals and crowdfunding web sites for the non-existent Lebanese hospitals and ambulances, authorities stated.
Bielecki is at the moment cooling his collar in Westchester County Jail after being deemed a flight threat, federal authorities confirmed.
Including to to his troubles, he can now not perform as a priest.
“His ordination provides him the power to perform as a priest and carry out the sacraments, however eradicating his colleges takes away his permission to carry out priestly ministry,” stated Mollie Fullington, a spokesperson for The Province of St. Mary of the Capuchin Order, which is headquartered in White Plains.
“He can not hear confessions. He can not have fun Mass publicly. He can not carry out baptisms or funerals or weddings, and can’t have interaction in counseling or religious course. At this level, he’s nonetheless a priest, however he can not carry out these capabilities,” Fullington stated.
“The Province of St. Mary is working with its superiors in Rome to handle Fr. Paul’s standing as a member of the Capuchin Order,” the spokesperson stated.
Ralph Succar, a Brooklyn group chief who helped increase 1000’s at a 2018 Bay Ridge fundraiser to help Christian refugees within the Center East, underscored that his fellow members of the Verrazano Rotary and Salaam Membership of New York gave with good intentions.
“We have been taken. What he did [scamming the community] was completely unsuitable and he ought to be uncovered,” Succar stated.
“Bielecki exploited his place as a friar to realize the belief of victims throughout the nation and steal a whole bunch of 1000’s of {dollars} from them,” stated Damian Williams, US Lawyer for the Southern District of New York, which collared the clergyman on Aug. 17 on fees of wire and mail fraud.
The Polish-born Bielecki entered the order of Capuchin Franciscans in Krakow in 1994 — sarcastically taking a vow of poverty, which required him to surrender materials issues and to not maintain any property or financial institution accounts.
The order supplies friars with a month-to-month $250 stipend, in addition to a bank card, for bills.
He was ordained a priest in 2001, church officers stated.
Starting in 2011 he grew to become a “visitor” of the Province of St. Mary, which covers New York and New England and is headquartered in White Plains.
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