Rev. Justin Paul Pechulis

Assignment Record– Rev. Justin Paul Pechulis

Summary of Case: Justin Paul Pechulis was ordained for the Diocese of Raleigh in 1958. He assisted in Newton Grove before being named pastor of a Tarboro parish in 1962. From there he pastored parishes in North Wilkesboro, Charlotte and Asheville, which became part of the Charlotte diocese when it was established in 1971.

In 2009 Pechulis was accused in a lawsuit of sexually abusing a teenage boy from Philadelphia in the late 1970s. Per the suit, the boy was being abused by Philadelphia priest, John McCole, who took the boy on a trip to Asheville NC where Pechulis was pastor of St. Lawrence parish. McCole and Pechulis were friends from seminary. The alleged victim said the two priests forced him to participate in group oral sex, and a third man watched while masturbating.

Pechulis died unexpectedly at age 53 in April 1983.

Ordained: 1958
Died: April 30, 1983

Start	Stop	Assignments	Town/Accusations	State	Position	Notes
1958 Diocese of Raleigh Bishop was Vincent Stanislaus Waters (1945-1974).	1959	Our Lady of Guadalupe	Newton Grove	NC	2/2
1958	1959	St. Mary's	Mt. Olive	NC		This was a mission of Our Lady of Guadalupe in Newton Grove.
1958	1959	Good Shepherd	Duplin	NC		This was a mission of Our Lady of Guadalupe in Newton Grove.
1958	1959	Sacred Heart	Goldsboro	NC		This was a mission of Our Lady of Guadalupe in Newton Grove.
1958	1959	Transfiguration	Wallace	NC		This was a mission of Our Lady of Guadalupe in Newton Grove.
1959	1961	Our Lady of the Assumption	Charlotte	NC	2/2	Our Lady of the Assumption had a school with 180-236 students.
1961	1962	Infant of Prague	Jacksonville	NC	2/2	Infant of Prague had a schoolw ith 700 students.
1962	1968	St. Catherine's	Tarboro	NC	1/1
1962	1968	St. Anne's	Scotland Neck	NC		This was a mission of St. Catherine's in Tarboro.
1968 The Charlotte diocese was established November 12, 1971. Its bishop was Michael Joseph Begley (1971-1984).	1973	St. John Baptist de LaSalle	North Wilkesboro	NC	1/1, 1/2	St. John Baptiste de LaSalle became part of the Charlotte diocese when it was established in 1971.
1968	1973	St. Frances of Rome	Sparta	NC		This was a mission of St. John Baptist de LaSalle in North Wilkesboro.
1973	1977	St. Peter's	Charlotte	NC	1/2
1977	1983	St. Lawrence's	Asheville • Pechulis was accused in a 2009 lawsuit of sexually abusing a teenage boy along with retired Philadelphia priest, Rev. John McCole, in the late 1970s. His accuser, who was from Philadelphia, said McCole had been abusing him and took him on a trip to Asheville, where the two priests forced him to participate in group oral sex. The priests were friends from seminary. The alleged victim also said a third man watched while masturbating.	NC	1/1	Pechulis died unexpectedly at age 53 in April 30, 1983. Pechulis and McCole's accuser said he told Philadelphia archbishop Krol about the abuse, whose response was, “That’s just how men behave with each other.”

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.

Sources: Official Catholic Directory (Kenedy & Sons, 1959-1984).

• Sex Abuse Lawsuit Names Deceased Asheville Priest, By Clarke Morrison, Citizen Times, June 2, 2009
• '70s Altar Boy Alleges Abuse & That Krol Abetted Cover-up, By St. John Barned-Smith, Philadelphia Daily News, June 9, 2009
• Philly Priests Face Sex-abuse Charges, Philadelphia Gay News, June 25, 2009

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 Pechulis's career history as it is represented in the Official Catholic Directory with the allegations against him, as reported in the media. We make no representation regarding the truth of the allegations we report, and we remind our readers that the U.S. legal system presumes that a person accused of or charged with a crime is innocent until proven guilty. Similarly, individuals who may be defendants in civil actions are presumed not to be liable for such claims unless a plaintiff proves otherwise. Admissions of guilt or liability are not typically a part of civil or private settlements. For more information, see our posting policy.

This assignment record was last updated on January 25, 2017.