Search is on for missing Qns. medic

A New York priest and advocate for the LGBT community, who once told a prospective seminarian to lie to church officials about his sexuality, has been suspended from ministry after a church penal process to address an allegation of sexual misconduct.

The Rev. John Duffell, who for years has bucked the Catholic Church’s stance on homosexuality, has been directed not to publicly exercise his priestly ministry in light of an allegation of sexual misconduct, Timothy Cardinal Dolan wrote in a letter to parishioners of the Church of the Blessed Sacrament on July 1.

“The allegation was made first to the [Manhattan] district attorney, and then brought to our attention,” Dolan wrote. “This allegation involves an adult; it does not involve a minor. It is important that the archdiocese take such allegations seriously.”

Duffell, 75, was pastor of the Church of the Blessed Sacrament on Manhattan’s Upper West Side. He announced his retirement last Sunday.

In a letter to family and friends last week, Duffell said he had expected to remain with the parish for a few more weeks, but his plans changed last Monday when he was summoned to the Archdiocesan Chancery Office and given a decree of suspension.

“Many years ago there was an allegation of sexual impropriety with an adult which I categorically denied because it was not true,” Duffell wrote. “Those files were subpoenaed from the archdiocese by the Manhattan district attorney.”

Reached by phone on Sunday, Duffell declined to answer several questions from the Daily News. He did say that the allegation was “nothing more” than him being accused of breaking his vow of celibacy, adding that the DA’s inquiry had begun very recently.

The archdiocese did not respond to multiple requests for comment, and the district attorney’s office declined to comment.

Duffell has drawn national headlines for the better part of a decade for positioning himself as an ally of the LGBT community. During a conference hosted by Fordham University in 2011, he was asked for advice by an audience member who felt “broken” after being told he could not become a priest because he was gay.

“You’re not broken, the system is broken,” Duffell replied. “Therefore you deal with it as a broken system — you lie.”

Duffell developed a close relationship with pop star Lady Gaga, who shared a photo of them together on Instagram in 2016 while commending one of his sermons. A year later, he partnered with Gaga’s LGBT-oriented Born This Way Foundation to hold a fundraising dance party at the the church hall.

In his letter, the priest apologized to those close to him for not sharing details of the allegation, saying he kept quiet due to an order of confidentiality and “because the archdiocese felt that something had to be done for the good of the church. Please note there were NO allegations of any improprieties with minors.”

Duffell has attracted criticism from the religious community in recent years for setting up a gay fellowship at his church. He opened each of his sermons by telling attendees the church welcomes “everyone with no distinction, regardless of race or sexuality.”

He was a co-founder of Voices of the Ordained, a group of priests in New York who raised concerns about the church’s 2002 “Dallas Charter” that was drafted to combat clerical sex abuse.

Parishioners attending Sunday afternoon Mass at Blessed Sacrament were surprised to find out about An FDNY paramedic missing from his Queens home was the focus of an increasingly frantic search on Sunday as his wife described his disappearance as out of character for the devoted husband and respected first responder.

Jesan-Michael Avile-Hyde, 39, who works out of EMS Station 31 in Brooklyn, walked out of his home on 137th St. in Flushing at 2:30 p.m. Friday, wearing his uniform’s blue cargo pants, a gray hoodie and black boots, according to his union, Local 2057.

The NYPD said a missing person report was filed Sunday in the 109th Precinct after his wife of 10 years, Gyanu Bomjon, 41, reported that Avile-Hyde left the house to check on his car, and never returned.

Avile-Hyde (photo) didn’t take his cell phone or his work bag, the union reported.

“I keep looking from the window, going out around the neighborhood,” homemaker Bomjon told the Daily News.

AvileHyde’s absence has both their families worried sick, Bomjon said. Her family lives in Nepal, while his parents are in France. The couple have no children.

“The first day I was wondering, waiting and so anxious about what’s going on,” she told The News.

“Yesterday, so many people came, and I was kept busy,” she said, but “I was crying, crying, crying. When my family called this afternoon…. I can’t control my emotions.”

“I can’t sleep,” she added. “I’m thinking and thinking, where is he? He never does this. This is so strange, without any communication.”

Bomjon said since they’ve been married, her husband routinely keeps in close contact, always telling her where he is and when he’ll return.

Even if the couple argue, she says, he will call to let her know that everything is all right.