Raymond A. Prybis, O.M.I—Assignment Record

Rev. Raymond A. Prybis, O.M.I.—Assignment Record

Summary of Case: Accused in 1992 of exposing himself to a 14- or 15-year-old boy in the early 1980s in a Boston archdiocesan parish, and having the boy beat him with a belt. The complaint is in Prybis's Boston personnel file and was publicly filed in the Ford v. Law case. Prybis worked in schools and parishes in 7 dioceses in the states of New York, Florida, Washington DC, Massachusetts, Michigan, Pennsylvania, and Minnesota.

Ordained: 1967
Incardinated: An Oblate priest with faculties in at least seven dioceses.


Prybis in 2006, as business manager of the Oblates' Christ the King Retreat Center in Buffalo MN

Start	Stop	Parish	Town	State	Position	Notes
1967	1968	Bishop Fallon High School	Buffalo	NY	11/11.	In the Buffalo NY diocese, James A. McNulty, bishop; and the Eastern American Province of the Oblates, William P. Ryan OMI, provincial.
1968	1974	Cardinal Newman High School	West Palm Beach	FL	9/10, rising to 3/10. In 1968, the priests were: Revs. Leslie Cann, supervising principal; George Croft OMI, principal of boys’ division (with Sr. Thomas James OP, principal of girls’ division); Revs. Francis Curley OMI; Robert Lynch OMI; William Kopp OMI; William Denzel OMI; Eugene Card OMI; Arthur King OMI; Raymond Prybis OMI; Br. Paul Kajdan OMI. In 1969, 5 new priests arrived: Revs. William Brooks OMI; Edward J. Tighe OMI; John J. Morrissey OMI; Leo Dionne OMI; Paul Frank OMI. In 1970 Rev. Donald McGurrin OMI arrived. In 1971 Rev. Charles Cassetta arrived. In 1972, 3 Oblates arrived: Revs. Thaddeus Kloc OMI, Robert Colfer OMI, and Edward Hauf OMI.	In the Miami archdiocese, Coleman F. Carroll, archbishop; and in the Southern U.S. Province of the Oblates, John A. Hakey OMI, provincial. In 1968-69, 9 Oblates of Mary Immaculate, 9 Dominican Sisters, 25 lay teachers, 868 pupils Note: In the 1974 Directory, Prybis is indexed to Cardinal Newman HS but not listed there.
1974	1980	Oblate College	Washington	DC	13/15, rising to 9/17. Superior was George F. Kirwin OMI. College had 16 resident priests, 22 scholastics, and 2 brothers in 1974-75. Prybis earned a J.C.D. degree in 1978 and a Ph.D. in 1979.	In the Washington archdiocese, William W. Baum, archbishop; and in the Eastern American Province of the Oblates, George Croft OMI, provincial.
1980	1984	Sacred Heart	Lowell • In 1992, Prybis was accused of exposing himself to a 14- or 15-year-old boy at Sacred Heart in 1983 or 1984 and getting the boy to whip him. See notes on the allegation by Sr. Mulkerrin and her memo to Rev. John McCormack. Mulkerrin's notes and memo state that the victim's father "threw [Prybis] against car - then had meeting" with Prybis and the pastor, who would have been Rev. Gerald Flater OMI. Flater said Prybis would be sent for therapy. It would seem that this allegation was the cause of Prybis's departure for Buffalo.	MA	4/6; by 1983 he was 2/5. Pastor was Rev. Donald J. Joyce OMI. Other priests were Revs. Francis Reardon OMI, Francis Bagan OMI, Salvatore R. Costa OMI, and John W. Linnehan OMI. Gerald Flater OMI arrived in 1981, and became pastor in 1982. Lawrence Griffin OMI arrived in 1982. William Lawless OMI arrived in 1983, as did Seamus Finn OMI in residence.	Boston archdiocese, where Cardinal Humberto Medeiros and then Bernard Law were the archbishops. Indexed and listed in the 1981-84 Directories. under the pseudonym Raymond Phybis, which perhaps indicates that the Oblates had received a complaint in 1980 and were making Prybis difficult to locate. Parish school was run by 3 Sisters of St. Mary of Namur with 12 lay teachers, and had 370 pupils. See photo at left.
1984		Possible Therapy			The two Boston archdiocesan documents 1 2 state that Prybis was "sent for therapy" after the Lowell allegation.	It is not clear whether he went to a treatment facility before his Buffalo assignment, or whether the treatment occurred in Buffalo. The pastor in Lowell promised the victim's father a report but never followed up, so there is no confirmation in the record that the therapy occurred.
1984	1988	Holy Angels	Buffalo	NY	Bursar, 5/10. Pastor was Very Rev. Michael J. Devaney OMI. Other priests were Revs. Brendan Hunt OMI, Joseph Supple OMI, Richard Kulwiec OMI, assistants; Thomas Cantwell OMI, missionary; Nelson Hamilton OMI, chaplain of Columbus Hospital; and in residence: Revs. Joseph L. Garrity OMI, Paul Rust OMI, and Daniel F. O'Leary OMI.	In the Buffalo NY diocese where Edward D. Head was bishop. In the 1985 Directory, and subsequent years, Prybis is indexed and listed by the correct spelling of his last name. The parish ran a school. In 1984-85, there were 11 lay teachers and 124 students.
1988	1989	Immaculate Heart of Mary	Grand Rapids	MI	2/3. Pastor was Rev. Patrick J. Hollywood OMI. Other priest was Rev. Dennis Cooney OMI.	In the Grand Rapids MI diocese, wh ere Joseph M. Breitenbeck was bishop. Parish school was run by 1 Sister of St. Dominic with 19 lay teachers, and had 423 pupils.
1989	1990	St. Joseph's	Dallastown	PA	Pastor, 1/3.	In the Harrisburg PA diocese, where Nicholas C. Dattilo was bishop.
1990	1993	Immaculate Heart of Mary Novitiate-Infirmary	Tewksbury • It was Prybis's presence here that prompted the complaint which the archdiocese received in 1992 about abuse in the early to mid-1980s (see above).	MA	One of 26 priests and 2 brothers in residence.	In the Boston archdiocese, where Bernard Law was the cardinal-archbishop.
1993	2001	Oblate College / Oblate Center for Mission Studies	Washington	DC	10/10. Rev. David N. Power OMI was the superior and Rev. George Kirwin OMI was the president.	In the Washington archdiocese, where James Hickey was the cardinal-archbishop. Theodore McCarrick became archbishop in 1986 and cardinal in 2000.
2001	2010	Christ the King Retreat Center	Buffalo	MN	4/6. See the 2006 description of staff, from the retreat center web site.	In the St. Paul-Minneapolis archdiocese, where Harry J. Flynn was archbishop.
2010	2012					Prybis is not indexedin the 2011 or 2012 Directories, nor is he listed in the St. Paul-Minneapolis pages as at his previous or next assignments.
2012	2013	Oblate Residence	St. Paul	MN
2013	2014					Prybis is not indexed in the 2014 Directory, nor is he listed in the St. Paul-Minneapolis pages at his previous assignment.

Source: Official Catholic Directory (New York: Kenedy & Sons, 1968-2010).

Priests in a Parish: We use the following convention to show a priest's place among the clergy of a parish: 1/2 means that he is the first priest listed in the Official Catholic Directory (usually the pastor) and that there is a total of two priests at the parish. The shorthand 3/4 means that the priest is listed third on a four-priest roster. See our sample page from the Directory.

Note: The Official Catholic Directory aims to report the whereabouts of Catholic priests in the United States on January 1 of the Directory's publication year. Our working assumption is that a priest listed in the Directory for a given year was at the same assignment for part of the previous year as well. However, Kenedy and Sons will sometimes accept updates well into the year of publication. Diocesan clergy records are rarely available to correct this information. The Directory is also sometimes misleading or wrong. We have tried to create an accurate assignment record, given the source materials and their limitations. Assignment records are a work in progress and we are always improving the records that we post. Please email us with new information and corrections.

This assignment record collates Prybis's career history as it is represented in the Official Catholic Directory with the allegation against him reported in his Boston archdiocesan personnell file. We make no representation regarding the truth of the allegation we report. We remind our readers that in the U.S. judicial system, a person is considered innocent until proven guilty.

A Note on Nomenclature: We use the term "assignment record," instead of the more common "service record," because "service" is not an appropriate word for the activities of an abusive priest. Dioceses are often less than forthcoming about the activities of retired priests, but when we can determine those activities, we list them in these assignment records, particularly if they involve ministry. Retired priests remain under obedience to their bishop, and even the activities of laicized priests should be a concern to the diocese.

This assignment record was last updated on 11/5/15.