PENNSYLVANIA
Times-Tribune

BY JOSEPH KOHUT (STAFF WRITER)
Published: September 20, 2013

An assistant pastor from an Old Forge church charged for sex crimes involving a 15-year-old boy has been removed from his assignment and can no longer serve as a priest, according to a statement from the Diocese of Scranton.

Dan Gallagher, diocesan community affairs manager, wrote in an e-mail that the diocese is pledging to assist police in their investigation against The Rev. William Jeffery Paulish.

“Upon being notified of this incident, the cleric was immediately removed from his assignment and his faculties to exercise priestly ministry were suspended,” Mr. Gallagher writes. “The Diocese has pledged its cooperation to law enforcement and asks that anyone who may have been sexually abused by Father Paulish or any member of the clergy notify the Lackawanna County District Attorney’s Office at 570-963-6717 or local law enforcement.”

The Rev. Paulish, 56,…