The world is not his cloister.
The Archdiocese of New York has stripped suspected crooked cleric Father Pawl Bielecki of his “priestly faculties,” officials said.
The conman known as “Father Paul” and dubbed Friar Tummy Tuck used at least $650,000 in phony charity donations to fund a lavish lifestyle and plastic surgery, according to the feds.
Bielecki claimed he ran medical clinics in war-torn Lebanon, but he was 5,600 miles away in Manhattan. For the past eight years, the priest preyed on the compassionate, soliciting donations on local radio shows and crowdfunding websites for the non-existent Lebanese hospitals and ambulances, authorities said.
Bielecki is currently cooling his collar in Westchester County Jail after being deemed a flight risk, federal authorities confirmed.
Adding to to his troubles, he can no longer function as a clergyman.
“His ordination gives him the ability to function as a priest and perform the sacraments, but removing his faculties takes away his permission to perform priestly ministry,” said Mollie Fullington, a spokesperson for The Province of St. Mary of the Capuchin Order, which is headquartered in White Plains.
“He cannot hear confessions. He cannot celebrate Mass publicly. He cannot perform baptisms or funerals or weddings, and cannot engage in counseling or spiritual direction. At this point, he is still a priest, but he cannot perform these functions,” Fullington said.
“The Province of St. Mary is working with its superiors in Rome to address Fr. Paul’s status as a member of the Capuchin Order,” the spokesperson said.
Ralph Succar, a Brooklyn community leader who helped raise thousands at a 2018 Bay Ridge fundraiser to aid Christian refugees in the Middle East, underscored that his fellow members of the Verrazano Rotary and Salaam Club of New York gave with good intentions.
“We were taken. What he did [scamming the community] was absolutely wrong and he should be exposed,” Succar said.
“Bielecki exploited his position as a friar to gain the trust of victims across the country and steal hundreds of thousands of dollars from them,” said Damian Williams, US Attorney for the Southern District of New York, which collared the clergyman on Aug. 17 on charges of wire and mail fraud.
The Polish-born Bielecki entered the order of Capuchin Franciscans in Krakow in 1994 — ironically taking a vow of poverty, which required him to renounce material things and to not hold any property or bank accounts.
The order provides friars with a monthly $250 stipend, as well as a credit card, for expenses.
He was ordained a priest in 2001, church officials said.
Beginning in 2011 he became a “guest” of the Province of St. Mary, which covers New York and New England and is headquartered in White Plains.