DIOCESE Clears Central NY Priest of Misconduct Allegations

By John O'Brien
Syracuse.com
December 23, 2016

http://www.syracuse.com/news/index.ssf/2016/12/diocese_clears_central_ny_priest_of_misconduct_allegations.html

Paul.jpg The Rev. Paul Angelicchio (right), conducts a Mass at Holy Family Church in Fairmount in October 2003. The Syracuse Catholic Diocese deemed allegations of misconduct from 27 years ago against Angelicchio to be not credible. (Gary Walts | gwalts@syracuse.com)

Allegations of misconduct against a Catholic priest in Rome have been deemed to be unfounded, the Syracuse Diocese announced today.

Bishop Robert Cunningham said the Diocesan Review Board found the allegations against the Rev. Paul Angelicchio from 27 years ago to be not credible.

Cunningham accepted the board's recommendation and returned Angelicchio to active ministry as pastor of St. John the Baptist Church and Transfiguration Church in Rome, effective today.

The review board is made up of six people -- four lay professionals, a member of the clergy and a religious, the diocese said.

The diocese placed Angelicchio on temporarily administrative leave Nov. 21 in response to allegations of abusing a minor. The accusation was first made to the Onondaga County District Attorney's office, which later forwarded it to the diocese, according to a news release from the diocese.

District Attorney William Fitzpatrick told Syracuse.com that his office found no evidence found no physical evidence or corroborating witness to corroborate the allegation. Fitzpatrick said his office determined Angelicchio was not a danger to children.

Before he became pastor in Rome in 2011, Angelicchio worked for years at Our Lady of Pompeii/St. Peter Church in Syracuse and Holy Family Church in Fairmount. He also was a parish priest at Our Lady of Lourdes Church on Valley Drive in Syracuse during the 1980s. From 1977 to 1999, he also served as police chaplain for the Syracuse department.

Contact: jobrien@syracuse.com