PENNSYLVANIA
Times Leader
[with assignment history]
April 04. 2014
By Mark Guydish – mguydish@civitasmedia.com
SCRANTON — Priest, pastor of the Cathedral Church of Saint Peter, chaplain for high school students and Boy Scout troops, adoptee who presided over his father’s funeral in Wilkes-Barre, Bishop Hoban Graduate class of 1984 — the Rev. Phillip Altavilla was all these things.
Now he is one more: The latest Diocese of Scranton priest accused of misconduct with a minor.
Scranton police arrested Altavilla Thursday after a woman approached them with a story as sordid as the night it allegedly happened was spiritual.
As a 13-year-old member of St. Patrick’s Church in Scranton in 1998, she had the honor of serving Midnight Mass Christmas morning, the police affidavit says. It is often the most ornately decorated and richly orchestrated ceremony of a Catholic parish, marking the Christian date for the birth of the faith’s Savior.
Police report
According to police, the woman said that after the Mass, Altavilla offered her alcohol in the parish rectory, then gave her a ride home, parking along the way and fondling her feet and legs before she objected.
Police say upon receiving the report they had the woman call Altavilla while they listened in, and he admitted to the alcohol, touching her feet and placing his hand up her leg. According to the affidavit, Altavilla said “he has a foot fetish and feet gratify him and are sexual to him.”
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