U.s.: Businessman Priest Suspended

By Maria Teresa Pontara Pederiva
Vatican Insider
July 17, 2012

http://vaticaninsider.lastampa.it/en/homepage/world-news/detail/articolo/us-stati-uniiti-estados-unidos-chiesa-church-iglesia-16863/

Charles J. Chaput

This time it has nothing to do with paedophilia, doctrinal issues or alleged liturgical abuses. Forty seven year old Geraldo Pinero, former pastor of Incarnation of Our Lord Church in Philadelphia’s Olney neighbourhood was removed "unsuitable for ministry," due to "a substantiated violation of The Standards of Ministerial Behavior and Boundaries."

Archbishop Charles J. Chaput announced the news Sunday. He did not go into detail about the nature of the “violations” but they appear to be business related. Indeed, Pinero was a local face of an Illinois-based enterprise calling itself Teamwork Revolution Power Systems and the Philadelphia Inquirer revealed that back in November 2010 federal agents had served a search warrant on the Incarnation rectory but no criminal or civil action was taken against the pastor. In a statement, a spokesman of the archdiocese allegedly said that “outside secular employment is not permitted for a priest,” except from teaching in Catholic universities or faith related conferences.

As a result, and following Mgr. Chaput’s announcement last Sunday, Pinero is no longer permitted to exercise his public ministry, wear clerical garb or present himself publicly as a priest." In autumn 2011, 26 priests were suspended for reasons linked to paedophilia but the Archdiocese is adamant that this particular case has nothing to do with any of these previous cases.

Geraldo Pinero - commonly known in Philadelphia as Fr. Jerry – was ordained in 1991 and had served in the Incarnation parish until 1997, then in Aston in County Delware from 2000 to 2003, finally returning to the Church of the Incarnation.

According to the local press, the comments made by faithful last Sunday did not sound at all convincing: "They say he did something wrong, but nothing to do with the kids," one woman said. "I don't know what happened. Nobody knows anything." "We never heard nothing bad about him… Father Jerry, he gave his whole life to the community."

It seems Pinero was involved in a number of commercial activities as is evident from his Facebook page; the charges against him are also supposedly to the fact that he appeared on the web without his priestly garments - preferring to wear jumpers or a velvet jacket – promising “progressive income” through the sale of candles and other such items in order to supposedly help people get through this serious moment of financial crisis. The Daily Times called him an “Ex Delco”.

Pinero himself has made no comment on the matter and seems to be unreachable.