Foul-mouthed Priest in Hot Water at Catholic High School

By Julia Marsh
New York Post
May 11, 2016

http://nypost.com/2016/05/11/foul-mouth-priest-in-hot-water-at-catholic-high-school/

St. Joseph by-the-Sea Catholic school

The principal of a Staten Island Catholic school — a potty-mouthed priest who allegedly trashed colleagues as “tw-ts,” “b—hes,” “d–kheads” and “pieces of s–t” — had better pray that his sacrilegious statements didn’t reach God’s ears.

Three employees of St. Joseph by-the-Sea, in the Huguenot section of Staten Island, are suing the Rev. Michael P. Reilly, two of his “henchmen” and the Archdiocese of New York for gender and age discrimination.

Rev. Michael P. Reilly

The St. Joseph staffers, Lawrence Boliak, Maureen Smith and Thomas Rodes, claim Reilly “unleashed a constant stream of rude, crude and inappropriate remarks including saying the word f–k in almost every sentence in some form,” according to their Manhattan Supreme Court suit.

“He calls women ‘tw-ts’ and multiple women a ‘tw-teria.’ He also refers to women as ‘b–ches,'” the suit says.

The man of God even unleashed homophobic and racist tirades, joking that he wanted to kick a black teacher “back to the jungle” and calling an administrator a “fat f—ot,” the suit says.

“Father Reilly’s ugly, crude comments are offensive to practicing Catholics,” the suit says.

Reilly’s “henchmen” — Vice Principal Robert Richard and Dean Greg Manos — “support, condone and mimic” the principal’s ungodly behavior, the suit says.

The mean-spirited remarks were all part of a coordinated campaign to drive out teachers over age 60, including one who was battling cancer, the suit charges.

The “egregious conduct [is] approved and protected by their employer, the Archdiocese of New York and Cardinal Timothy Dolan,” the suit says.

Archdiocese spokesman Joseph Zwilling said, “We have not seen the lawsuit yet, and so cannot comment on it in any detail.”

But based on published reports, Zwilling said the suit was retaliation by Boliak, who was disciplined for allegedly pulling down a former student’s shorts in his office last October.

Boliak counters in court papers that he simply grabbed at the boy’s shorts while the former student was having a heated argument with Manos, then missed and yanked his gym shorts “for a brief second to stop further escalation.”

The incident resulted in Boliak being called a “pedophile” by Reilly, Manso and Richard, he claims in the filing.

Zwilling, the archdiocese spokesman, said, “At no time has anyone labeled him a pedophile.”

Zwilling called the other allegations “absurd and strongly denied by Father Reilly and his staff.”