Father Justin Pechulis
Diocese of Charlotte
Ordained: 1958
Died: 1983
Assigned as Follows:
- 1958-1959: Our Lady of Guadalupe (Newton Grove, NC)
- 1958-1959: St. Mary’s (Mt. Olive, NC)
- 1958-1959: Good Shepherd (Duplin, NC)
- 1958-1959: Sacred Heart (Goldsboro, NC)
- 1958-1959: Transfiguration Church (Wallace, NC)
- 1959-1961: Our Lady of the Assumption (Charlotte, NC)
- 1961-1962: Infant of Prague (Jacksonville, NC)
- 1962-1968: St. Catherine’s (Tarboro, NC)
- 1962-1968: St. Anne’s (Scotland Neck, NC)
- 1968-1973: St. John the Baptist de LaSalle (North Wilkesboro, NC)
- 1968-1973: St. Frances of Rome (Sparta, NC)
- 1973-1977: St. Peter’s (Charlotte, NC)
- 1977-1983: St. Lawrence’s (Asheville, NC)
Summary of Sexual Abuse Allegations against Father Justin Pechulis:
Father Justin Pechulis was ordained a priest in 1958, and served in multiple parishes in the Diocese of Charlotte. According to media reports, in 2009, a civil lawsuit against the Diocese of Charlotte accused Father Justin Paul Pechulis of sexually abusing a teenage boy from Philadelphia in 1976 or 1977. According to the lawsuit, the boy was being abused by a Philadelphia priest, Fr. John McCole, who took the boy on a trip to St. Lawrence in Asheville, where Pechulis was a pastor. The alleged victim said that the two priests forced him to participate in group oral sex, and a third unidentified man watched them while masturbating. He was only 15 or 16 at the time. The lawsuit said that Cardinal John Krol, the Archbishop of Philadelphia, was told of the abuse but dismissed the allegations saying “that’s just how men behave with each other.”
The Charlotte Diocese’s Lay Review Board found the man’s allegations credible. Pechulis’ name has been added to the list of credibly accused priests released by the Diocese of Charlotte in 2019.
Justin Pechulis died in April of 1983.
Horowitz Law is a law firm representing victims and survivors of sexual abuse by Catholic priests and other clergy in the Roman Catholic Diocese of Charlotte. If you need a lawyer because you were sexually abused by a priest in North Carolina, contact our office today. Although many years have passed, those abused by Catholic clergy in the Roman Catholic Diocese of Charlotte now have legal options to recover damages due to a change in North Carolina law. Contact us at 888-283-9922. Email us at [email protected].